Judge postpones ruling on woman’s confession
Melanie Eam faces murder charges in the death of James Barry Jr. in Loxahatchee.
Melanie Eam’s attorney asked for it to be suppressed; she had told sheriff ’s investigator she stabbed ex-boyfriend James Barry Jr.
WEST PALM BEACH — A judge Tuesday delayed a ruling on whether to toss Melanie Eam’s confession to fatally stabbing her ex-boyfriend last year.
Eam, an Acreage resident, faces second-degree murder charges in the November 2016 death of 21-year-old James Barry Jr. at his Loxahatchee home. Her attorney, Bruce Lehr of Miami, had asked Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley VIDEO ONLINE
At PalmBeachPost.com, Barry family speaks after Tuesday’s hearing.
to suppress the confession she made to a Palm Beach County sheriff ’s investigator at her cousin’s Maryland home.
Lehr asked at the end of Tuesday’s hearing that it be continued because he wants to bring two relatives of Eam from Maryland to testify. Lehr said he’d hoped to rely on affidavits from the relatives, but the prosecutor declined, necessitating their travel to Florida.
Kelley tentatively set the rest of the hearing for Nov. 8.
Afterward, James Barry Sr. said he’s confident the confession will be allowed, but even if it’s not, there’s enough evidence to convict Eam of his son’s slaying. He also said he’s not frustrated by the pace of the case.
“We’re here for the duration. It doesn’t matter if it’s another six months,” he said. “I do believe in my heart at the end of the day that it will be done. That justice will be served for James.”
Authorities have said James Barry Jr. messaged Eam on Nov. 16, 2016, to say he wanted to end their two-year relationship. She has said she drove from her home to his residence early on Nov. 17.
When Barry told her he didn’t love her, Eam allegedly picked up a knife and stabbed him several times. Her cellphone was found on the porch of the home, according to the arrest report.
Eam fled in her car to a cousin’s home in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring, Md., where deputies eventually found her.
Court documents say Eam, then 20 years old, repeatedly asked for a lawyer, but Detective Sean Oliver told Eam he just wanted her side of the story and that a lawyer might get in the way.
She was not read her Miranda rights and was told she was not under arrest, but she also wasn’t told she was free to go. Her car was impounded and the Maryland house was put under surveillance.
Eam testified Tuesday, telling Lehr she had seen her car towed and a marked police car in front of the house.
“As far as you were concerned, were you free to leave?” Lehr said.
“No,” Eam replied.
She also said, “I asked for a lawyer several times.”
Lehr said later it doesn’t matter if the authorities believed Eam technically wasn’t in custody — only what she believed.
Oliver, the detective, said Tuesday in his testimony that Eam made only vague statements about a lawyer.
A 35-minute audio recording of the Maryland visit was played in court Tuesday. On it, Oliver is heard telling Eam, “We just want to talk to you. You’re not under arrest.”
The playback in court was difficult to hear clearly.
But in a previously released transcript of it, Eam says she didn’t mean to hurt Barry. She told Oliver she was upset he didn’t love her, but she’s not the kind of person who would do something like this and she thought he was going to be OK.
Oliver testified Tuesday that the whole time he talked to Eam, recording their conversation on his cellphone, relatives were within earshot.
“The sole intention was just to get her side of what happened,” Oliver said in court.
“If she was directly involved, I wanted to get a statement from her.”
Oliver said that when Eam appeared depressed, he talked to a relative about her.
“I was actually concerned for her. She seemed really fragile,” Oliver said.
That brought groans from some of the relatives and friends of Barry who filled 2½ rows of the downtown courtroom.
Assistant State Attorney Lauren Godden asked, “If Ms. Eam had asked you to stop the interview and leave, would you have done so?” Oliver said yes.
Oliver later told Lehr, “When I interview somebody, sometimes I stretch things. I am allowed by law.”
Lehr: “Would you call this a stretching of the truth or a lie?” Oliver said no to both.
Lehr: “Did you ever tell her that she didn’t have to talk to you?” Oliver said he used the word “voluntary.”
Oliver also said Eam sobbed at one point in the interview.
After Tuesday’s hearing, mother Nicola Barry described James Jr. as “a good soul. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body.”
And James Sr. said, “You miss every single piece of him every single day.”
He said the family always will grieve for what he wasn’t able to do with his life.
“Everything in life is gone. Has been taken away,” he said. “That’s the hardest part.”