New Hampshire man convicted of 1st-degree murder in beheading case

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A jury on Thursday convicted a New Hampshire man of first-degree homicide for killing his spouse’s coworker after he found they had been texting, after which forcing her to behead him.

Armando Barron, 32, faces a life sentence with out parole. He additionally was convicted of assaulting his spouse, Britany Barron, the evening he found she had been texting together with her coworker, 25-year-old Jonathan Amerault. Prosecutors mentioned he used her cellphone to lure him to a park simply north of the Massachusetts state line in September 2020. Barron additionally was convicted of beating and kicking Amerault, forcing him into his personal automobile and taking pictures him.

Amerault’s mom was within the courtroom and began crying as the decision was learn. The jury had the case for a little bit beneath two hours.

“The defendant had all of the motive to kill Jonathan, as a result of for him, Jonathan was a person who had simply began seeing his spouse,” prosecutor Benjamin Agati mentioned throughout closing arguments. “A person who his spouse thought preferred an Abercrombie mannequin, a person who was at her office that he now knew was speaking to his spouse behind his again. The person that he immediately noticed as a rival.”

In closing arguments, Barron’s lawyer mentioned Britany’s testimony was contradicted by bodily proof and she or he had a motive to lie, whereas a prosecutor mentioned she instructed the reality and had feared for her life.

Barron had pleaded not responsible to the costs. His attorneys argue that his spouse shot Amerault, which she denies.

His lawyer, Meredith Lugo, mentioned the “main instance” of Britany’s testimony not being supported by the proof was her description of how Armando shot that final bullet within the hatchback automobile. She mentioned he was circled within the passenger’s seat, with Amerault within the again and his head up towards the door of the hatchback.

Lugo mentioned the shot couldn’t have been inflicted that approach, noting that the state’s chief medical expert testified the bullet was fired at shut vary.

“If Britany isn’t being trustworthy with you about that, what else isn’t she telling you?” Lugo mentioned.

Agati mentioned that Amerault died making an attempt to save lots of himself, shifting towards Armando because the shot was fired. He had tried to guard himself when a previous bullet went by way of his arm and had different defensive wounds on his arms and fingers. His toes had been near a machete that was on the ground, and to the automobile door handles.

“To consider that in that taking pictures that Jonathan simply sat there’s not cheap,” Agati mentioned.

Britany, 33, testified that after Amerault was shot, she was compelled to drive the automobile 200 miles (322 kilometers) north to a distant campsite, with Armando driving proper behind her and speaking to her on the telephone a lot of the approach. There, she mentioned, she was compelled to behead Amerault. Her husband ultimately left her on the web site, telling her to eliminate the physique, she testified.

Lugo mentioned Britany is “very able to mendacity when she needs to,” noting that when she was approached on the campsite by state Fish and Sport Division officers, she instructed them she was there “clearing her head” following a combat with a girlfriend at a celebration.

Finally, the officers seen one thing coated by a tarp that turned out to be Amerault’s automobile. She was detained and dropped at police.

“However after all she cooperated at that time,” Lugo mentioned. “She had a narrative she was promoting and she or he wanted them to consider it,” framing herself because the sufferer.

Agati mentioned the stability that Britany should have needed to make, “believing that her personal life was forfeit, juxtaposed together with her must get again house to the women that she had virtually actually been dragged away from, the connection she had been in for 14 years of marriage,” ought to be thought of by the jurors.

Britany Barron pleaded responsible final 12 months to 3 counts of falsifying proof and was launched from jail on parole final month.

The Related Press had not been naming the couple so as to not establish Britany Barron, who mentioned she suffered excessive abuse. By way of her lawyer, she lately agreed to using her identify.