By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org

The Jaffrey man who allegedly shot and killed his wife’s lover before forcing her to decapitate the dead body is being denied the probable cause hearing he requested claiming that his wife is not telling the truth about the murder.

Cheshire Superior Court Judge David Ruoff denied Armando Barron’s request for the probable cause hearing, writing that Barron’s argument that there is no hard evidence of a crime beyond his wife’s allegations is insufficient.

“The defendant argues, in effect, that she has a motive to lie and that her ‘evidence’ is just an accusation and therefore not credible,” Ruoff wrote.

He said that is not an accurate interpretation of the evidence so far presented in the case. Both Armando Barron, 30, and his wife, Britany Barron, 31, are being held without bail for their roles in connection with the murder of Keene resident Jonathan Amerault, 25,  that began in the Jaffrey/Rindge area on Friday, Sept. 19, 2020.

Armando Barron was charged with capital murder and Britany Barron with falsifying physical evidence in conjunction with Amerault’s murder.

According to court records, the state is processing thousands of pages of information, close to 30 hours of recorded interviews, and several thousand photographs, as well as the physical evidence taken from multiple crime scenes. Because of delays related to COVID-19, there have been missed discovery deadlines, prompting Barron’s request for the probable cause hearing. 

Police discovered Britany Barron alone at an Errol campsite, with Amerault’s headless body, head, and car.

“I’m in big trouble,” she reportedly said to the conservation officers who found her.

Armando Barron allegedly discovered that Britany Barron was having an affair with Amerault and then used her cell phone on Saturday to lure Amerault to Annett Wayside Park in Rindge. Britany Barron told police that her husband had savagely beat her after discovering her affair with Amerault, and at one point during the assault he put a loaded pistol in her mouth.

At Annett Wayside Park, Armando Barron violently assaulted Amerault and tried to force his wife to shoot him, even putting the gun in her hands and wrapping his hand over hers, according to the police affidavit written by New Hampshire State Police Detective Stephen Sloper.

After Armando Barron tried and failed to get Britany Barron to step on Amerault’s neck, he forced her to cut her lover’s wrists, according to Sloper. Armando Barron then shot Amerault three times, police said.

The couple drove up to the Errol campground with Britany Barron being forced to drive Amerault’s Subaru up to the woods. There, she was forced to cut off Amerault’s head and bury it in the woods, police said. Amerault’s body was wrapped in a tarp and buried near a brook, and his car was covered with a tarp, according to Sloper’s affidavit.

Amerault failed to show up for work the following Monday, and his mother had reported him missing to Keene police, according to New Hampshire State Police Detective Matthew Anderson’s affidavit. 

Police contacted Teleflex Medical in Jaffrey where Amerault worked and learned he did not call out, but his co-worker, Britany Barron was also out. Teleflex employees told police Britany Barron called to say she would not be at work and was likely quitting her job. Employees also told police they believed Britany Barron and Amerault were in a relationship.

Police contacted Armando Barron and he told detectives that he was despondent over the break-up of his marriage. He told detectives he last saw his wife that Saturday night when he dropped her off at the side of the road in Temple so that she could go camping with friends. He then drove to Errol in Coos County, a three and a half hour drive, and then returned home, he told police.

Anderson writes that police used cell phone signal data to locate Britany Barron. Her phone was last connected to a cell tower in Errol, and New Hampshire Fish and Game conservation officers found her at a campsite in the woods in Atkinson and Gilmanton Academy Grant.

Police say Britany Barron was alone at the campsite and armed. Near her was an object covered by a tarp and covered with sticks and branches. The conservation officers reported seeing blood run out of the bound tarp covering Amerault’s headless body.

Britany Barron told police that she burned Amerault’s belongings and wiped down his car and was waiting for her husband to return, according to Sloper’s affidavit.

He was stopped and arrested in Coos County, though the affidavit is not exact, stating he was arrested in the State Police Troop F jurisdiction.

Both Barron’s are currently being held without bail.

https://www.courts.state.nh.us/caseinfo/pdf/BarronA/index.htm