Testimony began today in 132nd Judicial District Court in the tampering with evidence trial of a Snyder couple.
Juan Barron and Nicole Barron are charged with concealing or altering physical evidence in the wake of the fatal shootings of Joshua Hoover and Benjamin Bruns at the Barron’s home on Ave. Z in Snyder in the early morning hours of Jan. 24, 2016.
The Barrons have already stood trial on murder charges in Hoover’s and Bruns’ deaths. Juan Barron received a two-year prison sentence after the jury found him guilty of murdering Hoover, but the couple was cleared of three other murder charges.
In his opening remarks this morning, District Attorney Ben Smith previewed the evidence he would introduce in the trial.
Smith said the evidence would show that after the shootings, which occurred at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 24, 2016, the Barrons, rather than immediately calling law enforcement, waited five hours before going to the Snyder Police Department to report the incident. During that time, Smith said, they took several steps to alter the scene, the most dramatic being when they put the bodies of the two dead men underneath the Barrons’ mobile home.
Defense attorneys Bruce Patton and Anne-Marie Gillespie countered during their opening statements by saying the state would be unable to prove all the elements of the indictment.
Patton urged jurors to consider the three basic elements of the indictment: that the Barrons had known a crime had been committed, that they knowingly altered the scene and that they did so with the intent to conceal that evidence from any subsequent investigation.
Patton, who is defending Juan Barron, admitted that the Barrons altered the scene, but strongly denied that they believed a crime had been committed, arguing instead they were the victims of a home invasion.
Dramatically donning all-black clothing similar to that worn by the two dead men, Patton said that Juan Barron acted in self-defense.
“He believed that he didn’t commit murder,” Patton said. “He believed he was acting to save his life, Nicole’s life and the life of their four-year-old child.”
As for whether the Barrons’ actions were to conceal the evidence from an investigation, Patton said the evidence would show that they cooperated fully with police, making several sworn statements and allowing officers full access to the scene.
Gillespie, who is representing Nicole Barron, struck a similar chord in her remarks.
“You’re going to hear that what (the Barrons told police) matched up to what happened,” she said. “And the end results of this incident do not match up with the elements of the indictment.”
The first witness Smith called was Scurry County 911 dispatcher Whitney Stewart, who testified that she was on duty at the law enforcement center at 9 a.m. on the date of the incident when the Barrons approached her station, saying they needed to talk to the police because “something bad” had happened.
Stewart said the couple described how two men had tried to break into their house, and the Barrons had killed the men in self-defense. She described Nicole Barron’s demeanor as emotional, while Juan Barron was calm.