Man convicted of murdering wife’s coworker

CONCORD, N.H. - A jury convicted a man of first-degree murder for killing his wife's coworker after he discovered they were texting and forcing her to behead him.

Armando Barron, 32, faces a life sentence without parole. He was also convicted of assaulting his wife Britany Barron the night he discovered she had been texting with her coworker, 25-year-old Jonathan Amerault. Prosecutors said he used his cell phone to lure him to a park just north of the Massachusetts state line in September 2020. Barron was convicted of beating and kicking Amerault, forcing him into his own car and shooting him.

Amerault's mother was in the courtroom and started crying as the verdict was read. The jury had the case for a little over two hours.

The defendant had a motive to kill Jonathan, because for him, Jonathan was a man who had just started seeing his wife, prosecutor Benjamin Agati said during closing arguments. A man he thought looked like an Abercrombie model, a man who was at her workplace that he now knew was talking to his wife behind his back. He immediately saw the man as a rival. In closing arguments, Barron's lawyer said Britany's testimony was contradicted by physical evidence and she had a motive to lie, while a prosecutor said she told the truth and had feared for her life.

Barron had pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyers argue that his wife shot Amerault, which she denies.

His lawyer, Meredith Lugo, said Britany's testimony was not supported by the evidence, as was her description of how Armando shot that last bullet in the hatchback vehicle. She said he was turned around in the passenger seat, with Amerault in the back and his head up against the door of the hatchback.

Lugo said the shot couldn't have been inflicted that way, noting that the state's chief medical examiner testified that the bullet was fired at close range.

If Britany isn't honest with you about that, what else isn't she telling you? Lugo said something.

Agati said Amerault died trying to save himself, moving toward Armando as the shot was fired. He had tried to protect himself when a prior bullet went through his arm and had other defensive wounds on his arms and hands. His feet were close to a machete that was on the floor, and to the car door handles.

Agati said to be not reasonable to believe that Jonathan just sat there during the shooting.

Britany, 33, testified that after Amerault was shot, she was forced to drive the car 200 miles north to a remote campsite, with Armando behind her and talking to her on the phone most of the time. She said she was forced to behead Amerault. Her husband eventually left her at the site, telling her to dispose of the body, she testified.

Lugo said Britany is very capable of lying when she wants to, noting that when approached by state Fish and Game Department officers at the campsite, she told them she was there clearing her head after a fight with a girlfriend at a party.

Eventually the officers noticed something covered by a tarp that turned out to be Amerault's car. She was arrested and brought to the police.

She cooperated, of course, at that point, Lugo said. She had a story she was selling and she needed to believe it, framing herself as the victim.

Agati said the balance that Britany had to make, believing that her own life was forfeited and her need to get back home to the girls she had almost literally been dragged away from, the relationship she had been in for 14 years of marriage, should be considered by the jurors.

Britany Barron was released from jail last month after pleaded guilty to three counts of falsifying evidence.