Editor’s note: This story includes descriptions of violence, including domestic assault.
Details from Jonathan Amerault’s autopsy dominated the fourth day of the trial of Armando Barron, the Jaffrey man charged with murdering the 25-year-old Keene resident in September 2020.
In more than 2 1/2 hours of testimony Monday in Cheshire County Superior Court, New Hampshire Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jennie Duval walked jurors through the examination that led her to determine Amerault’s death was a homicide caused by a gunshot wound to the head.
“He has deep cuts, he has several lacerations on his scalp, and these other gunshot wounds, [on] the legs and the arm,” Duval said. “So, these are significant injuries. They’re all going to be bleeding and cause varying levels of incapacitation. But the most immediately lethal wound is one of those gunshot wounds that entered the head.”
Armando Barron, 32, is charged with first-degree murder, which carries a maximum punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole. His defense attorneys have argued that his wife, Britany, actually killed Amerault. But in her testimony last week, Britany Barron said Armando assaulted her, told her to kill Amerault and shot Amerault himself when she refused, all after finding flirtatious text messages between the two of them.
During Duval’s testimony Monday, she said Amerault had gunshot wounds in both thighs, in his left arm and two in his head, including the fatal shot. Duval testified that all of these wounds could have been caused by three bullets — the number of shots Britany Barron said her husband fired at Amerault.
The wounds to Amerault’s thighs, Duval said, could have been caused by a single bullet that entered the left leg and re-entered in the right thigh, if he were on the ground in a particular position, which Assistant Attorney General Scott Chase got down on the floor to demonstrate for jurors.
“I’ll say a fetal position bent at the waist bent at the knees,” Duval said. “That could be a straight line. That’s one. There could be another [bullet] that entered the left arm, the elbow region and re-entered the head if his arm is up around his head, sort of cradling his head, protecting his head. … And then the third one appears to be a close-range wound.”
Meredith Lugo, one of two public defenders representing Armando Barron, highlighted the close range of the fatal shot when she asked Duval if it could have, for instance, been fired by someone in the front seat of a vehicle while Amerault was in the rear, hatchback portion of the car.
“Not if his head was up against the hatchback, no,” Duval said. “That would not be possible.”
During opening arguments last Tuesday, Armando Barron’s other attorney, Morgan Taggart-Hampton, questioned whether the lethal shot could have been taken from that seat, where she said Armando Barron was sitting in the vehicle.
During her testimony last week, Britany Barron said Armando brutally beat and choked her on the night of Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020, after finding Snapchat messages between her and Amerault, her coworker, on her phone. Later that night, she said Armando drove her to Annett Wayside Park in Rindge, repeatedly hitting her in the face as he drove.
Armando Barron messaged Amerault using Britany’s phone to lure him to the park, she said. When Amerault arrived, Britany Barron said Armando hit and kicked him and stomped on his face. Her husband put the gun in her hand, and ordered her to shoot, she said, but she refused. Armando then told her to step on Amerault’s neck and she also cut Amerault’s wrists with a knife on her husband’s orders, she said.
Britany Barron, 33, pleaded guilty in Grafton County Superior Court in September to three counts of falsifying evidence — one for cleaning off Amerault’s vehicle after the killing, one for wrapping his body in a tarp and a third for decapitating him after his death, all of which she said she did on her husband’s orders. She was granted parole last month.
In addition to the murder charge, prosecutors have accused Armando Barron of a slew of crimes, including solicitation of murder, solicitation of first-degree assault and domestic-violence charges that allege he assaulted his wife and told her to harm Amerault. He also faces kidnapping, attempted murder, second-degree assault and reckless-conduct charges.
During opening arguments last week, Taggart-Hampton said her client does not dispute several of the assault and domestic-violence charges related to beating Britany and kicking Amerault in the head, but he denies the charges that he put a gun in Britany’s mouth, and ordered her to hurt or kill Amerault.
Prior to Duval’s testimony Monday, a pair of officials with New Hampshire State Police took the witness stand to detail their roles in the investigation.
Trooper Mallory Littman of the Major Crimes Unit testified about surveillance footage from downtown Jaffrey showing a Jeep Patriot, the vehicle prosecutors claim Armando Barron was driving the night of the killing, driving toward Annett Wayside Park in Rindge, followed about two hours later by Amerault’s Subaru Impreza.
When investigators later searched the Jeep, Littman said they found dried blood in the middle rear seat, center console, exterior of the glove box and on the passenger’s seat and seat belt.
Rachel Martinez, a criminalist with the State Police’s forensic lab who specializes in fingerprint analysis, said that in her examination of the evidence, she found a palm print and fingerprints matching Armando Barron’s left hand on the rear spoiler of Amerault’s vehicle. She also found fingerprints belonging to Britany Barron on a can of spray paint that had been entered into evidence, Martinez said.
Monday’s testimony concluded with Jill Therriault, another forensic scientist at the state lab, who works as a firearms examiner. She tested the revolver prosecutors allege Armando Barron used to shoot Amerault, and found that two of the three bullets found in Amerault’s body during the autopsy, including the fatal shot to his head, came from that gun. Therriault said she could not determine the origin of the third bullet because it had fragmented in Amerault’s body.
Barron’s trial continues Tuesday, when prosecutors are expected to call more law-enforcement officials to testify. The trial is scheduled through June 3.
Ashley Saari of the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript and Paul Cuno-Booth of the Granite State News Collaborative contributed to this report.