Both the prosecution and defense teams in the murder trial of Armando Barron rested their cases Wednesday, with Barron’s defense team calling no witnesses.
After the state rested its case, Meredith Lugo, one of Barron’s public defenders, called for a dismissal of the case, arguing that the state had not met its burden of guilt. After hearing short arguments from both sides, Judge Elizabeth Leonard dismissed the motion, saying the jury had sufficient evidence to move to deliberation.
Barron is accused of first-degree murder, kidnapping, assault, soliciting murder, soliciting assault and multiple domestic violence charges relating to the September 2020 killing of Jonathan Amerault, 25, of Keene.
The prosecution alleges that after his wife Britany asked for a divorce, Armando Barron found flirtatious text messages between her and Amerault, who was her co-worker. The prosecution then alleges Armando Barron beat his wife, including choking her and putting a gun in her mouth, and then forced her to Annett Wayside Park in Rindge, assaulting her again in the vehicle on the way there.
Armando Barron then allegedly used his wife’s phone to lure Amerault to the park, where the prosecution charges he beat him, forced his wife to try to kill him by stepping on his neck and cutting his wrists and attempted to force her to shoot him, before forcing Amerault into the back of his own vehicle and shooting him three times.
The defense alleges it was Britany Barron who pulled the trigger on the fatal shot. The defense has admitted to some of the charges against Armando Barron, including some of the domestic violence charges, and to assaulting Amerault by kicking him in the head, but denies that he put a gun in his wife’s mouth, or that he coerced her into hurting Amerault or trying to kill him.
Britany Barron testified last week that she removed Amerault’s head from his body, dragged his corpse into the woods and helped conceal his car on orders from her husband, fearing for her life, at the campsite in a wooded area north of Errol. She previously pleaded guilty to three charges of falsifying physical evidence for her actions, and was granted parole in April.
The prosecution called its final three witnesses on Wednesday, including an intelligence analyst who interpreted cellphone location data and State Police officers who were involved with Barron’s arrest on Sept. 23, 2020, before resting its case.
In several hours of testimony Wednesday morning, the prosecution questioned Tracey Flaherty, an intelligence analyst for the New Hampshire State Police, about cellphone records and what their activity showed about the movements of devices belonging to Jonathan Amerault, Britany Barron and Armando Barron’s mother and stepfather.
Flaherty first testified about the limitations of such data, stressing that locations derived from phone companies can show which direction a call came from, but not pinpoint an exact location. For example, a cellphone may communicate with a tower that is farther away than another tower, if the surrounding topography means a farther tower offers a better signal. Information from cell providers can offer logs of calls and texts, as well as communications when the phone is not actively being used, but may be using data to receive email or operate applications, Flaherty explained.
On the evening of Sept. 19, 2020, and into Sept. 20, when Amerault is believed to have been killed, Flaherty outlined movements of phones belonging to Britany Barron and Amerault. At about 9:30 p.m., Britany Barron’s phone communicated with towers showing her moving from the direction of her home on Main Street in Jaffrey to the direction of Annett Wayside Park.
Starting at about 10:35 p.m., the phone had a large number of interactions with a single tower, indicating it was likely stationary for some time.
Amerault’s cellphone, until about 10:49 p.m., was interacting with a cell tower in the Keene area, and then at about 11:19 p.m., began to interact with towers traveling south of Keene toward Jaffrey. By 11:30 p.m., it interacted with a tower in the same direction as Annett Wayside Park.
Flaherty said Britany Barron’s and Jonathan Amerault’s phones were both connected to the same tower, in the same direction, at the same time, for a period of time that night. Amerault’s phone ceased to communicate with any other towers at 1:53 a.m.
During cross-examination, the defense questioned whether either of the phones owned by Armando Barron’s parents, which he sometimes used, ever indicated they were in the area of Annett Wayside Park. Flaherty said they were not.
The prosecution also submitted evidence of a call log later that morning between a cellphone belonging to Armando Barron’s stepfather and Britany Barron’s cellphone, when both phones were traveling to the northern portion of the state. Britany Barron alleged that her husband forced her to drive Amerault’s car, with his body in the back, to a remote campsite where they could dispose of the body, while he followed her in a separate vehicle. She told police that her husband kept her on the phone the entire drive, and any time the call dropped, would immediately call her back until the call connected.
Agati put up a display of a long list of calls from the stepfather’s phone to Britany Barron’s phone, and asked Flaherty if the length of the calls corresponded with a vast majority of the drive north.
“Absolutely yes,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty also confirmed that after leaving Jaffrey, there were multiple calls from the stepfather’s phone to Britany Barron’s phone, but no calls from her phone to his, and that there were multiple times where a call had attempted to go through that wasn’t connected.
Flaherty also read text messages sent from Britany Barron’s phone to Armando Barron’s mother.
“’Mama, I’m going to call the girls, please let it go to voicemail. Please let it go to voicemail and then let them hear, please,’” Flaherty read. “And then there was another text message that came in and it says, ‘Your mailbox is full, I can’t leave a message. I’m sorry. Tell my girls I love them with all my heart, and that I’m OK and will see them very soon. … My whole heart is you guys, I love you so much, please be good listeners for Abuelita and Papa. Take care of each other, you’re a team, remember that.’”
Later in the day, the jury heard from New Hampshire State Police officers who were involved with Armando Barron’s arrest, and heard a tape of a short interview conducted by the State Police shortly after his arrest.
Det. Sgt. Mike McLaughlin, of State Police Troop C, testified about his role in the investigation of Amerault’s disappearance.
A recorded interview with Armando Barron, which took place at about 2 a.m. on Sept. 23, following his arrest, was played for the jury. In the recording, which was only a few minutes long, McLaughlin told Barron he was under arrest for domestic violence. Barron questioned who the charge was alleged to be against.
“On Britany,” McLaughlin said on the recording.
“On Britany? … OK,” Armando Barron replied.
He then asked McLaughlin, “She finally called you guys?”
During questioning, Agati had McLaughlin confirm that line.
Agati asked whether Armando Barron seemed upset, or was crying, or asked police for help. McLaughlin replied he had not. Agati also confirmed that McLaughlin had asked about two phone numbers as possible ways to contact Armando Barron, and that Barron said he did not have his own phone, but routinely borrows phones belonging to his mother and stepfather.
Also taking the stand was Trooper John Fagerholm, who transported Armando Barron from the site of his arrest in northern New Hampshire, where his vehicle was stopped after police put out a be on the lookout order for Barron and his car.
Fagerholm said Armando Barron had a young girl with him, who he identified as his daughter, at the time of his arrest. He told police he was driving with his daughter to go camping. Fagerholm asked permission to go into Barron’s vehicle to retrieve his phone to contact someone to pick up his daughter while he was in custody, and Fagerholm said Barron gave that permission. Fagerholm identified a photograph of a phone as the one he found in Barron’s vehicle.
Fagerholm said during the roughly hour-long transport to the Troop F barracks in Carroll, he did not question Armando Barron, but Barron had asked him multiple times whether he was being served divorce papers, and told him he was having a rough time in his marriage and expecting a divorce.
The defense rested, declining to call any witnesses, shortly after the prosecution rested its case. Armando Barron did not take the stand in his own defense. Leonard confirmed with Barron that he had the right to take the stand, as well as the right to decline, and the jury would be instructed not to hold the decision not to testify against him. Barron said he had discussed both strategies with his attorney and understood his rights to make the decision.
Following the dismissal of the jury for the day, Leonard questioned how the defense would like to proceed on several charges which Armando Barron admitted culpability on during the defense’s opening statement. From a legal standpoint, admitting culpability is different from a plea. Armando Barron submitted pleas of not guilty to all charges, and has not changed that plea.
Lugo told Leonard it was the defense’s preference that all charges be put before the jury, and that the jury be instructed that a finding of guilt on any of the charges does not automatically mean guilt of any other charge.
The defense and prosecution teams spent some time after jury dismissal with Leonard refining instructions to be given to the jury, with wording on a few outstanding issues expected to be resolved before the trial resumed on Thursday at 10 a.m.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 424, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.