Opening arguments began today in 132nd Judicial District Court in the trial of two people accused of a January 2016 double homicide in Snyder.
Juan Ramon Barron, 26, and Jamai Nicole Barron, 31, both of Springtown, face first degree murder and second degree felony aggravated assault charges in the shooting and stabbing deaths of Joshua Hoover, of Snyder, and Benjamin Bruns, of Victoria.
District Attorney Ben Smith laid out the state’s premise during his opening statement before the five-man, seven-woman jury, which was seated around 6:30 p.m. Monday.
Smith told the jury that evidence will show that the killings took place at approximately 4 a.m. on Jan. 24, 2016 in the 2100 block of Ave. Z in Snyder. Approximately five hours later, the two defendants went to the Snyder Police Department to report the incident.
“The defendants were interrogated multiple times over the course of several days,” Smith said. “Pay close attention to what they say, and you’re going to find inconsistencies in their statements.”
Smith hammered away at the five-hour gap between the killings taking place and the defendants reporting the incident.
“There’s a lot that happened that night that only (the defendants) know,” Smith said. “This happened at 4 a.m. and they waited five hours before reporting it. They had plenty of time to clean up the crime scene before police arrived.”
Smith said autopsy results also differ from the defendants’ statements, showing that one of the defendants was shot at a much closer range than Juan Barron claimed.
Bruce Patton, attorney for Juan Barron, said the killings were a matter of his client bravely defending his family and home from armed and black-clad intruders.
“What this is all about is terror vs. courage — and courage won out,” Patton said.
Patton said that the “indisputable” evidence will show that Hoover and Bruns went to the Barrons’ house wearing black clothing and ski masks and armed with a pistol and pepper spray. Faced with that intrusion, Juan Barron attacked the men with a knife, soon to be joined by Nicole.
“Juan was courageous and brave,” Patton said. “The dead men — I’m not going to call them victims — were victims of their own choices. They turned bad.”
Patton said he will call an expert witness who will testify that inconsistencies in the defendants’ testimony are not unusual in such cases.
“Adrenaline affects your memory and sometimes makes you see things you really didn’t see,” he said. “All of that is very reasonable.”
Patton added that there was a reasonable explanation for the five-hour gap.
“They panicked,” he said. “For whatever reason they took the two bodies and stuffed them underneath a trailer house. But except for those few inconsistencies, everything they told police was the truth.”
Anna-Marie Gillespie, attorney for Nicole Barron, continued the self-defense argument in her opening statement.
“Imagine that it’s 4 a.m.,” she told the jurors. “It’s dark outside. And you see two men approach your house with weapons. That’s frightening. But (the defendants) defended their home and their family.”
Gillespie also said there were plausible explanations for inconsistencies in the defendants’ statements.
“Look at all the evidence,” she said. “Ask yourself: There may be some statements that may not be exactly correct, but does that mean they were lying? No.”
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