Rhett Barlow solicited a hit man to kill the driver who fatally struck his mother in a 2016 crash in Wake Forest, North Carolina, authorities say. Cops arrested Barlow on Jan. 6, 2024. (Wake County Jail via WTVD)
A man in North Carolina is behind bars after he allegedly solicited a hit man to murder the driver who fatally struck his mother in a 2016 crash.
The Wake Forest Police Department said on Saturday it arrested Rhett Michael Barlow, of Raleigh, on a charge of soliciting to commit first-degree murder. Cops took Barlow, 22, to the Wake Forest Jail where he remains on a $1 million bond. Police said he tried to have Donald Caulder Jr. killed. Police did not release further details about the alleged plot, saying the investigation continues and more information will be released as it becomes available.
Caulder on March 22, 2016, was driving his work dump truck when he rear-ended Michelle Barlow’s Toyota Sienna van which was stopped in front of him, ABC affiliate WTVD reported at the time. The van was crashed between the dump truck and another vehicle. Prosecutors charged Caulder, then 29, with misdemeanor death by vehicle and failure to reduce speed, according to court records. Caulder in 2017 pleaded guilty to misdemeanor death by vehicle and was sentenced to 75 days in jail and had his license suspended, the records say.
Court records also show Michelle Barlow’s estate sued Caulder and his employer Arbormax Tree Service LLC. Arbormax and its insurer agreed to pay the estate about $285,000 in installments over several years, records show. The lawsuit against Caulder was withdrawn.
Michelle Barlow’s obituary says she was a teacher for the Wake County Public School School. She was returning from a teacher’s workshop when she died in the accident.
“Her love for teaching, though great as it was, would always be second to the love she had for the students themselves,” the obituary said. “Her desire was to meet each student’s needs right where they were while always placing the greater value on the heart of the student and the development of their truest potential.”
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