WOMAN: AYERS MINISTERED TO ME

The woman who was in the Rev. Jonathan Ayers' car moments before he
was shot by undercover drug agents in Toccoa on Sept. 1 is refuting
reports that Ayers was involved in illegal activities.

"I'm an addict," 26-year-old Kayla Barrett of Clarkesville admitted
last week, saying that Ayers was ministering to her on the day of his
death.

"I've known him awhile - about six or seven years," she said, calling
him "a pastor and a friend."

She said that, over time, Ayers had been lecturing her and trying to
get her to straighten out her life and to get off drugs.

"I've been doing drugs for nine years," Barrett said, noting that she
is addicted to cocaine - "crack, basically."

"He told me I was too young to be living like I was living," she said.
"He didn't want me to waste my life."

Barrett said Ayers saw her walking from the Exxon station across from
the Shell station (where he eventually was shot) back toward Relax
Inn, where she and her fiancee were staying.

Since she had experienced a miscarriage 11 days prior and she visibly
was having difficulty walking, Barrett said Ayers offered her a ride
back to the motel.

"I was in his car for probably about five to seven minutes - and it
was probably 20-30 minutes before he got shot," Barrett said.

"When I got in the car, I was telling him about my recent
miscarriage," she said.

Barrett said she was paying $30 per day to stay at Relax Inn and, on
Sept. 1, was three days behind in her payments.

Her fiancee, who was staying there with her, had hurt his back and was
unable to work, she said.

She said they had been doing "odd jobs" and "yard work" to make
money.

Barrett said she asked Ayers if he could help her out with the back
rent, and that he gave "all the money he had on him" - $23.

"His last words to me were I didn't owe him anything," Barrett said.
"Probably 15-20 minutes after that I could hear the shots."

Responding to allegations she has heard, she said, "No, we did not
have sex - I'm not capable," referring to her Aug. 22
miscarriage.

"He [Ayers] doesn't have any part in any kind of drug activity,"
Barrett insisted. "He's never solicited me for prostitution. I don't
do that."

"I've never been charged with prostitution," she said.

Barrett said Ayers knew her fiancee and stopped to talk to him or her
whenever and wherever he saw them and that he had stopped by the motel
in the past.

"He had been by there before," she said. "He knew my fiancee also. I
didn't see him very much - about every two months."

Barrett, who is charged with two counts of sale of cocaine, doesn't
deny that she sold drugs to an undercover agent.

"I sold two $50 worth [of cocaine] twice to the agent," she said, but
is quick to add, "I've never had any drug charges on my record prior
to this."

Barrett said she was recruited by the undercover agent to sell drugs
to him.

"I don't sell no drugs - I do them," Barrett said.

Barrett said she didn't learn until Sept. 4 that Ayers was the one who
had been shot.

"My lawyer had to tell me he was dead," she said.

In the meantime, Barrett is out of jail on a $25,100 bond. Her
fiancee, who was arrested in their motel room on a parole violation
after her arrest, remains in jail.