Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Jealous hubby and cheating wife decapitate wife's young lover?

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

Jonathan Amerault is reported missing after not showing up for work. His headless torso is found in a densely wooded area wrapped in a tarp. His head is buried nearby. Who murdered the 25-year-old?Joining Nancy Grace today:Darryl Cohen, Atlanta Ga, Former Assistant District Attorney, Fulton County, Georgia, Defense Attorney Dr Debbie Joffe-Ellis - New York, Psychologist, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, www.debbiejoffeellis.comChris Byers, former Police Chief Johns Creek Georgia, 25 years as Police Officer, now Private Investigator and Polygraph Examiner, www.chrisbyersinvestigationsandpolygraph.comJoScott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet" featured on "Poisonous Liaisons" on True Crime NetworkNicole Partin - CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How many times have you heard somebody say, not you, of course, but somebody else. It's just sex, nothing more. It's never just sex. Listen to this. A 25-year-old lover goes missing, and when he's found, his head is not attached to his body. Let that sink in for a moment. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. In the prime of his life, this 25-year-old guy disappears off the face of the earth. Take a listen. State police looking for a missing 25 year old man from Keene. Police say that Jonathan Armeralt was reported missing after he failed to show up for work in Jaffray. His family hasn't heard from him since Saturday. He may be driving

a gray Subaru Impreza with New Hampshire plates. Anyone with information asked to contact state police. You're hearing our friends at WMUR getting the word out that this 25-year-old victim, Jonathan Emerald, has seemingly vanished into thin air, dropping off the face of the earth. It's first notice when he doesn't show up for work one morning. Then his family, disturbed, calls and reports him missing. He has never disappeared before, not even once. With me, an all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again. First of all, you know him well, defense attorney in multiple jurisdictions. Joining me out of Atlanta today, Daryl Cohen, former prosecutor, now defense attorney. Debbie Jaffe Ellis, New York psychologist, professor at Columbia University at DebbieJaffeEllis.com.

Former police chief Johns Creek, Georgia, Chief Chris Byers, 25 years as an officer. Now, private investigator and polygrapher at Chris Byersersinvestigations and polygraph.com, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and the star of a new series, Poisonous Liaisons on the True Crime Network, Joseph Scott Morgan. But first to Nicole Parton, crimeonline.com investigative reporter. Nicole Parton, have you noticed over and over and over nobody knows they're missing until Monday morning when they don't come to work? First of all,

that means that a lot of murders and nefarious dealings take place over the weekend. I'm just going to go hide under the bed right now and wait till Monday to come. But why is it? Is that when he was first noticed missing when he didn't show up to work? Do I have that right? That's true, Nancy. And you're right. We see that so often. So it was Monday morning when 25 year old Jonathan didn't show up for work. He was employed at Teleflex. He was employed where? At a company called Teleflex. And so they are a maker of medical devices. A maker of medical devices. They make them or distribute them? I think they do a little bit of both is my understanding.

Did he have to travel for his job? Do we know anything about that? Or was he there at the central office? He was there at work and also working some remotely, I think, lately as of the pandemic. But he was very well liked at the job. He didn't miss work. It was very uncommon for him to not show up, not be in contact with his fellow employees. And so when he didn't show up for work on Monday morning, that's when they begin to suspect that something was wrong.

To former police chief of Johns Creek, Georgia, Chris Byers. Chief, you're now an investigator and a polygrapher. How many times has somebody reported missing from friends at work? Here, that doesn't bother me as much because this is a single guy. He lives alone. Nobody's going to know he's missing until he doesn't show up from work. Yeah, and that's normally what happens in these cases. When it's somebody single that lives alone, it normally will be work that reports them as not coming in. And then at that point, of course, you're looking at their work history. Is this something normal for them or not? But it's all too common, especially in this age range we're talking about. 25, yeah. You know, on the other hand, Daryl Cohen, before you went to

the dark side and became a defense lawyer, how many cases when women go missing, they are noticed by their families because they tend to text, call, email with their mom or their sister or their girlfriends, but particularly their family. And when the family doesn't hear from them, they notice more quickly than when a guy goes missing. Now, this is anecdotal. I'm just thinking back over all the cases I've investigated, prosecuted, and covered. It seems to me more often women's families report them missing. I'm talking about the mom, the dad,

the sisters, the girlfriend, as opposed to guys' families. It's work. They notice at work the guy's missing. Well, Nancy, that's very true. Women have a tendency of being more social and more verbal. More caring, more articulate. No offense to you, of course. Perhaps more caring, but not more articulate. I would put that in a level playing field. Certainly more verbal. Women tend to say, use a lot more words than men do. Maybe it's because they know more words, but that's a whole other issue. To you, Dr. Debbie Jaffe-Illis, you're the psychologist joining us, adjunct professor Columbia.

Dr. Debbie, what is the difference? I mean, I know this means something. I'm a trial lawyer. You're the shrink. Why is it that more typically it's the men's office that reports them missing and the women have their mom, sister, girlfriend report them? I agree with Daryl that, and this is a generalization, of course, but it is a case. Debbie, you know what he was trying to say, women talk more.

That's what all that meant, okay? And I'm not agreeing with that, but go ahead. Well, I don't necessarily agree with that either, Nancy. Let me be more precise. I agree that many women can tend to be more social and have a network, be it larger or smaller, but one to whom they confide and more regularly stay in contact. So that's the part I agree with that Daryl said. What about it, Joe Scott Morgan? Your son just joined the military. How often is he riding home? Infrequently, I'll put it to you this way, but you have to understand, Nancy, he's going through really intensive training. So his mom is the one that actually reaches out to him most of the time. See, that's my point. Exactly. That's my

point. Exactly. I'm not judging men. I'm just saying that as a crime statistic. And this could bear some studies, some empirical data, how often women are reported missing by their family or girlfriends, extended, you know, like parents, sisters, versus men being reported at work. Long story short, he's reported at work. He hasn't shown up. Now, back to Nicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Does the workplace call his family or how did the family get involved? That's my understanding. So the workplace

reached out to some family member that they knew and that they were accustomed to talking to, reached out to family. Family began to try to call, try to text, go over to his house just to make sure that he was okay to see what was up. And that's when they couldn't find Jonathan. He was gone. His car was gone. And that's when they couldn't find Jonathan. He was gone. His car was gone. And that's when they began to speak to authorities to let them know that they felt like something was wrong. Now, that right there to you, chief buyers, when you're gone and your car is gone, that's a big aid to law enforcement because they know they're looking for a great Subaru. They probably got the tag number. And so the search starts there because everywhere on the highway, you've got

license grabs. You've got video surveillance at toll booths, at stop, at red lights, at intersections. Explain to me what is a tag grabber, Chief? So basically what you would do is take the tag and enter it into the state system. At this point, you can put whatever type of alerts on there you want, whether this is a wanted person, missing person, person with some type of Alzheimer's or something you're looking for. So once that's entered into the system, any time it hits, whether it's a mobile police car that has tag readers on them, which the majority do, the agency that I came from, over half of ours had them, or whether it's the fixed sort of stationary radar signs that have the tag readers built in, whenever there's an alert, whenever that tag passes through, it will alert law enforcement that that tag has gone through the location.

And then you can take action from there depending on what the entry into the system was. Chief, give me a yes, no, really quick answer on this. Chief Byers, very often you pass, it looks like a metal rod on the side of the interstate. And it's got a little panel on top that looks like it might be some kind of a sonar panel. But what that is, is a tag grabber. Is that what they look like? Yes, they come in all different types, but you can have them like those. You'll see the construction signs or it's coming to some jurisdictions

where it'll say welcome to your jurisdiction with a message board. Those have tag readers built into them. So they come in all shapes and sizes. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about the disappearance of a 25-year-old man, Jonathan Emerald, and the prime of his life. When he doesn't show up for work, the workplace calls his family. They put out the alarm with a formal missing persons alert. But then, take a listen to our friend, Saban Lopez, WMUR 9. A body found in northern New Hampshire is now believed to be 25-year-old Jonathan Amaralt, who was reported missing from Keene on Monday. The discovery was made Tuesday in an unincorporated area of Coasque County

known as Atkinson and Gilmanton Academy Grant, more than 200 miles from Amaralt's home. The location of the grant, it is not a place that is anywhere near Keene. And so we have had a great deal of geographic diversity in this investigation. And I think that's going to continue. Amaralt was reported missing when he did not show up for work, but his family hadn't heard from him since Saturday. Specifically, we are hoping that people who may have had any sort of contact with him or knew his whereabouts from Saturday the 19th on should go ahead and contact the New Hampshire State Police Major Crime Unit. Guys, 200 miles away from home.

That's where his body is found. Now, let's pick apart what we just heard. Jonathan's body, a 25-year-old young man, just straight out of college, really, his body found 200 miles away from home in a remote area. Now, what that says to me, it was a wooded remote area. That's what they mean by remote. To Nicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, tell me about the area in which Jonathan's body was found. The area where he was found, like you said, was a very remote wooded area.

And actually, this place was really just frequented by hunters those who were looking to get out and go hunting there wasn't a lot of camping there there was one general store in the area it wasn't a tourist area it wasn't a very populated area but a very dense wooded area where hunters would go for hunting and it's also important to note, this is an area where pretty much that entire region has zero cell phone service. So you're so far out that there's no cell phone service. There's not a lot of traffic, not a lot of businesses, just those hunters out there in the woods. You know, it's interesting. I didn't hear anything about his car being there. So his body is there. His car is still missing. So in my mind, that precludes any type of accident because he certainly didn't walk 200 miles to get to a remote,

densely wooded area and just die. He didn't commit suicide because again, where is his car? And in my mind, to you, Joe Scott Morgan, that tells me right off the bat, just from what I just heard, that he has been murdered because there's no way for him to have driven himself there. Where's his vehicle? Yeah, if you've never been to this region of New England, first off, it's absolutely gorgeous. But boy, is it isolated. I mean, really isolated. Yeah, well, that dead body kind of ruins the view for me, Joe Scott. Yeah, it kind of does. I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Go ahead. Well, you know, this goes in my mind as a former investigator that there's purpose behind this. That is that if someone did in fact kill

him and deliver him to this location, they might not have known the location specifically, but they were seeking out an isolated location. Maybe they were familiar with it. Just as Nicole just pointed out, this is an area that's only frequented by hunters. Okay. And those, those areas in and of themselves are, are typically very isolated, far out, far flung. So what would be your purpose for going out there? Well, it would be to hide a body. And from a forensic standpoint, this is even more crucial. Going back to Nicole, there's no cell service, Nancy.

How many times do we talk about these kind of cases where we're looking for pings on phone, recall? And so that's going to be critical coming back to this. Well, we're not going to get much of a ping there. You're right about that. Just trying to analyze what we know right now at this juncture. Car still missing. Gray Subaru. He's out there, body found in a remote area.

You don't even camp there. You don't even RV there. Only hunt there. So what is he doing there? And, you know, I noticed something very significant was missing from that report, Nicole Parton. They found the body without the head. That's correct. They found the body without the head, decapitated,

wrapped in a tarp with some branches laying over the body where someone had tried, obviously, to camouflage that tarp and to hide the body. I'm just letting that soak in for a moment. You know, at a certain point, Darrell Cohen, were you in the office when the Wayne Williams prosecution occurred? No, Nancy, I was just out. Just out.

Yeah, and... Yeah, Jack and Joe and the whole crew. I mean, that was the first case in the country, is my understanding, where fiber evidence was used. I'm talking about the serial murders of multiple young boys and teens throughout the city of Atlanta. Defendant Wayne Williams. And this is what many of the bodies, once they were all found, had in common. Many of them had carpet fibers that matched carpet fibers in Wayne Williams' home and in his car. My point is, what I'm getting to. Daryl Cohen, we get to a point in this line of business where we hear

that a body's been found. It's missing a head. But you know what caught my attention right there was when Nicole Parton said wrapped in a tarp. Because tarp, I immediately think of, how am I going to prove this case? What evidence is there? What evidence has not been destroyed? And what can I do with it? What can I possibly prove? Every, everything, what he was wearing, his fingernails, his face, his neck, the TARP, everything is evidence.

And this TARP, Daryl, could be a treasure trove of fingerprints of dna where did you buy it where did it come from is it from a local walmart if it is great let's look at that video surveillance who bought it um there's just so much to learn from something like a tarp oh absolutely nancy i mean going back to wayne Wayne Williams, my memory is it was a green carpet and fibers were found in the trunk of his car. And this tarp, we could have, as you point out, fingerprints. Doesn't really matter. Could we have DNA? Matters a lot.

Could we have where a visual video evidence of where it was purchased, Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace, one of the other smaller mom-and-pop hardware stores. They all have video surveillance because they have to protect themselves. So there is, as you point out, a treasure trove of possible evidence, but it has to be gone over carefully, piece by piece by the proper experts or else it's gone forever. What about that, Joe Scott Morgan, when you get something like a tarp, how do you process it? You process it very carefully, but I've got to add here, Nancy, when I have worked cases involving tarps, I would actually breathe a sigh of relief when I got out there and I saw a body, which I refer to as being cocooned. Because what the perpetrator does in this is they help us by containing all of this physical evidence. Daryl was mentioning just a second ago, we're talking about fibers, those sorts of things. So just imagine, if you will,

it's almost like someone takes a gigantic bag and dumps every bit of the evidence into it. You know, I've actually seen bodies in the swamps in South Louisiana that were cocooned in plastic tarps, which were almost perfectly, perfectly preserved. The perpetrator thought they were going to get away with it. We caught them. We nailed them. We convicted them. You know, Joe Scott, I'm worried about you. What do you and your wife talk about? Certainly not that, I hope.

Well, get in line. There's a lot of people worried about me. Yeah, okay. You know, likewise. I hear you. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, a 25-year-old man goes missing, and then his body, minus his head, is found 200 miles away in a remote hunting forest. How did he get there? Well, already we're talking about the physical evidence that could be gleaned from the scene where his body is found wrapped in a tarp. But now, who did it? Who would go to all that trouble to take him 200 miles from home, somehow get rid of his car, and then behead him. Because I'm telling you that a random killing, the killer does not take time to behead the victim.

They break into your house, they rape you and steal your stuff, or they shoot you and steal your stuff, and they leave. Bam. End of story. Who takes the time? It's not like this is a real life Dexter. To behead the person, wrap them up like a mummy and dump their body 200 miles away. Think about it. Think about who would do such a thing, and then the investigation begins. And you know it starts with family, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, and so forth and so on until you hit the jackpot. To you, Nicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter. Who was he dating?

Let's just start with that. He was dating a co-worker. So he was dating 31-year-old Brittany Barron, someone that he had met at work. Wait a minute. Dr. Debbie Jaffe Ellis. Why? Can I just be surprised once that you're not dating a co-worker? You know, when you date people at work, it ends in misery.

I mean, Daryl Cohen, didn't you date plenty of people at work? That's what I always heard. No comment, Nancy. On the ground, they contend to incriminate me. I thought so. Go ahead, Dr. Debbie. Well, it may or may not end in misery. If the two individuals are single and there's no third party, it may end quite happily. You know, when

you're in proximity and at work or not at work, you get to know one another. And so when a person is not attached to someone else and there's no treachery or secrecy involved, it actually is a good way to get to know someone. It may end well, but when there are other parties involved and there's secrecy, yeah, it may not end well. You know, I advise the kids to workplace romances because in the event you do break up or it doesn't work out for whatever reason, you're stuck with the person. You see them every single day, which one of the parties is going to be unhappy. And that's just like dragging them through the pain. And it's got to affect your work. And there's one other little problem with this romance. Isn't Brittany Barron

married, Nicole? That's correct. Brittany Barron is married, a married mother, and she was dating Jonathan on the side. They were hiding their relationship, but she absolutely was a married woman. Okay, there you go. Now, what were you saying about office romances, Dr. Debbie? I did say, Nancy, if the people are single there potentially could be good but you know it's important they be mature intelligent single people and realize if it doesn't work out the reality is they'll still be seeing each other are they willing to take the risk to get closer to get intimate because if it doesn't get out doesn't work yeah, there may be some challenges.

On the other hand, there are situations if people are mature and okay, how many, but they break up amicably and they still get on at work. There are many cases like that. So, you know, it's not one situation applies to everything. Okay, just so you know, Dr. Debbie, we know you're the shrink, but everybody in the studio is going, no way, no way. But, okay, you're entitled to your professional opinion, and we will be left with our amateur opinions here on the other end.

You know, to you, former Chief of Police, Johns Creek, Georgia, Chief Chris Byers, now PI and polygrapher, Chief Byers, you can't keep an office romance a secret. Don't you know everybody in that office knew what was going on? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Everybody knew what was going on, and everybody's ready to talk when this kind of stuff happens. So, yeah, I'm with you on that opinion.

It's never a good idea. And isn't it true, Chief? You know, I've been to plenty of office settings where a murder victim had worked. They know everything and you really do not have to twist their arms to get them to tell you. It's like they've been waiting for you to walk in

so they can unload everything they know about the victim or the relationship or whatever it may be, the defendant. You name it. I mean, you can learn so much at the office where the victim or the defendant work. Absolutely. You're spending, you know, 40 hours plus a week there. You're doing lives with these people day in and day out.

They know everything. And like you said, they're ready to talk. Guys, I hope you're sitting down. Take a listen to Catherine Underwood at NEC in Boston. Court documents reveal a twisted tale of infidelity and rage. There was the beginning of an extramarital relationship that was going on at the time. Brittany Barron told investigators that when her husband found out that she was having an affair with Amaral, he took her cell phone and he used it to lure Amaral to this park

here in Ridge, New Hampshire. That's where authorities say Amaral was shot and killed. Brittany Barron told investigators that Armando then ordered her to drive Amaral's body four and a half hours north, where she allegedly tried to cover up her husband's crime. Armando Barron is also facing several domestic violence charges for allegedly beating his wife while they were driving here to the park to meet Emerald. Let me understand something, Nicole Parton. The mistress, Brittany Barron, age 31, says that her husband, Armando Barron, finds out she's sleeping with Jonathan Amaral, age 25. He gets furious. He learns this by scrolling through her cell phone.

I mean, what? I mean, it's so obvious. He finds all their texts and their meetings and their I love you's on the cell phone, goes berserk. And then she goes along with luring her lover to this location where he gets killed. Do I understand the facts correctly that far? That's correct. So her husband finds conversations with the lover on the cell phone. And then her husband uses her cell phone to text Jonathan saying, meet me at a nearby state park. It was late Saturday evening. Apparently, this was a park that she and her lover had frequented before.

They'd gone there for romantic rendezvous and walks and so forth. And so, of course, Jonathan jumped on the opportunity to drive out to the park late in the middle of the night, Saturday night, to meet what he thinks is just Brittany alone. She never had a chance to warn him, Nicole? Apparently not. Her husband had her phone. So I guess she's saying that she had no other means to contact Jonathan to let him know what was going on. Interesting. Take a listen to Scott Chase out of New Hampshire. Well, the state recognizes that the defendant has been cooperative and has assisted investigators, this case is especially heinous and gruesome. The brutality of the crime combined with the fact that the defendant's destruction of evidence was in an effort to conceal a capital murder driving Jonathan's body nearly 200 miles north of the crime scene in Jonathan's own car, deep into the Northwoods,

the defendant decapitated Jonathan, wrapped his head in a tarp, and placed it in a grave in order to prevent investigators from identifying Jonathan if his body was ever found. The defendant then wrapped Jonathan's body in a tarp and dragged him deeper into the woods where investigators found him in a shallow brook. This was all with the intent to conceal a capital murder. Had this defendant successfully destroyed that evidence, her husband, the alleged murderer, may very well have evaded detection and or apprehension. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. For those of you just joining us, a 25-year-old young man dead, his body found decapitated 200 miles away from home. So she takes the dead body of her lover alone in his car and drives it 200 miles and decapitates him.

Is that correct? That's correct. So they leave the park. Who is they? Who is they? Well, Brittany. Brittany Barron. Yes, Brittany Barron, the deceased lover Jonathan, in Jonathan's car.

She's driving with the body, and they're making this four-and-a-half-hour track north up to this remote wooded area that we talked about earlier. Meanwhile, her husband, Armando Barron, is following behind in his separate vehicle, but she's driving with a deceased in the deceased car up to this wooded area. When they get there, she decapitates him in his car. Isn't it true she had her cell phone during this drive? That's what I understand. I haven't confirmed that, but she did mention that she had the cell phone with her because her husband wanted to be able to communicate with her as they were driving. Daryl Cohen, Daryl Cohen, Daryl Cohen. So she drives the car with her dead lover in the back for hours with a cell phone.

Then she decapitates her lover, cuts his head off. Why didn't she call the police? Well, Nancy, obviously she couldn't call the police. She didn't want to use her phone while driving. That would be illegal. What did you just say? I said she was running out to call the police.

She didn't want to text and drive? No, nor do you want to use a phone with your hands unless you have hands free. That's why you have hands free every phone house, and it's called speaker. Well, she was certainly a speaker, but unable to speak at the time. Darryl, that's the first time i've ever lost a tiny bit of respect for you she didn't want to talk on the phone while she was driving okay joe scott morgan let's just get back to reality and off the daryl cohen planet joe scott she drove four hours with the dead body of her lover in the back seat and then she

beheaded him en route she had her cell phone. There's no defense for her. Her husband is not in the car. Yeah, you know, when I first heard of this story, Nancy, the word kept coming up in my mind of duress. It's a word that attorneys use quite a bit. Law enforcement uses it quite a bit. But now, you know, since you kind of shed this light on the fact that she was absent, this guy who was, you know, commanding her allegedly to facilitate all this.

In a four hour period, you couldn't just simply dial 9-1-1. It doesn't it doesn't make sense to me. Guys, take a listen to our friend Scott Chase. The defendant drove nearly 200 miles in a separate vehicle with a cell phone on her person in transporting the body for three hours approximately, Your Honor, with multiple opportunities anywhere in between. Grinch and the scene of the of her crimes demonstrates that she had multiple opportunities to avoid committing the crimes that she is currently charged with. Another example of that is the steering wheel itself. Her cleaning that steering wheel was after Armando, as Your Honor can see in the affidavit, had gone to destroy other evidence. Beyond that, Your Honor, she did cooperate. She cooperated after she was caught. She had multiple opportunities prior to being

caught by New Hampshire Fish and Game to seek help, to avoid, regardless of, you know, in addition to the 200 miles that she drove and had the opportunity to prevent herself from feeling like she needed to commit any other crimes. So to Unicole Parton, CrimeOnline.com investigative reporter, how was the body found? So the body was found decapitated, as we know, the head wrapped in a separate tarp buried in a shallow grave a few hundred yards from the body that was also wrapped in a tarp that was kind of thrown in a stream in the wooded area with some branches on top of it. So she manages to single-handedly cut his head off, throw his body in a creek, and bury the head. But how was she discovered? How was the body discovered? Who discovered it? So it was at this wooded area after the body and the head were buried. Her husband leaves her there. They make a makeshift camp. He says he's going back

home, making that four and a half hour trip back south, leaving her there at the campsite. She's there camping when hunters are coming by saying, look, lady, you're camping in an unauthorized area. You're not supposed to be here. So it was some hunters who reported to the Department of Fish and Game that there's a lady here at a campsite in an unauthorized area. And so when the Fish and Game Department came up on the campsite, that's when they began to locate and realize, hey, some things here are not quite as they should be. They told her to pack up camp to get out. They help her load up her things. They get out of the camp in an area there where she's making this makeshift camp.

When she says to one of the gentlemen, I forgot something. Can you go back to the camp and look at this for me? And she also says under her breath, I'm in a lot of trouble. Yeah, she's in trouble, all right. So they go back. And then what happens? They go back and that's when they begin to look a little closer and they find drag marks in the mud

from her campsite over to that stream. And that's when they find the body wrapped in the tarp with the branches. Now, she does have a defense in the works. Take a listen to her defense attorney, Richard Guerrero. In everything that the state alleges that Ms. Barron did, she did under duress, and I mean under duress meaning direct fear for her life after having been beaten, according to the New Hampshire State Police account of this in their interview with her. If you look at page four, this really started with her being beaten severely. If you look at her face right now, to the extent that you can see it, she still has the bruising on her face and around her eyes, and it's described in the affidavit.

Armando beat her severely and threatened her. He put a gun in her mouth, an obvious threat to kill her. He applied enough force to her neck to make it difficult for her to breathe to the point that she passed out and chipped her tooth in the incident. She was, to say the least, severely threatened, severely beaten, and placed in fear of her life. Take a listen to Andy Hershberger, WMUR 9. 30-year-old Armando Barron is charged with capital murder for allegedly kidnapping and then shooting 25-year-old Jonathan Amaralt in the head. His wife, Brittany Barron, also faces three charges of falsifying physical evidence associated with the crime. After driving Jonathan's body nearly 200 miles north of the crime scene in Jonathan's own car,

deep into the Northwoods that offended decapitated Jonathan, wrapped his head in a tarp and placed it in a grave. Court records say this may have been sparked when Armando Barron discovered an affair that court paperwork said was going on between his wife and Amaral. To you, Nicole Parton, one last question. I understand there's evidence that Brittany Barron used a machete to cut Jonathan's wrist or hands after he was kidnapped and forced into the car at gunpoint. I'm curious. That's correct. Was he still alive when she chopped his hands with a machete? Yes.

Yes, he was alive when she did that. Okay, good luck. Good luck getting out of that one, lady. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.