Judge: Woman’s confession to be allowed at trial
In recorded interview, Melanie Eam admits to stabbing ex-boyfriend.
WEST PALM BEACH — Melanie Eam’s confession of the fatal stabbing of her ex-boyfriend will be allowed during her trial for second-degree murder, a Palm Beach County judge ruled Wednesday.
Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley’s ruling comes after two separate hearings at which Eam’s lawyer, Bruce Lehr of Miami, fought to suppress the confession. He argued that Eam was not read her Miranda rights when questioned, was denied a lawyer and believed she was not free to go.
In the confession, Eam, 21, said she stabbed James Barry Jr., 21, early on Nov. 17, 2016, after he had sent her a message saying he wanted to end their relationship of nearly two years. She said she didn’t mean to hurt him, but she was upset that he didn’t love her anymore, according to court documents. Eam then fled the scene to a relative’s home in Maryland and left her cellphone on the porch of the Loxahatchee home where Barry lived with his mother.
Days later, detectives spoke with her in her family’s Silver Spring, Md., home and Eam confessed to the fatal attack.
Kelley wrote while it is clear Eam, a resident of The Acreage, was not read her rights, she also was not under arrest. Kelley said the center of Lehr’s argument to throw out the confession was whether Eam thought she was in custody.
In the recorded interview, Eam asks Palm Beach County sheriff ’s Detective Sean Oliver several times if she can have a lawyer. Oliver told her that they would not provide her a lawyer and that she’d be better off explaining what happened between her and Barry. He told her that she didn’t want to come off as “callous, coldhearted,” according to court documents.
“You know what an attorney would tell you to do? He won’t
let you (inaudible) yourself,” Oliver says. “This is your opportunity right now. The evidence is going to speak for itself (inaudible), then you won’t have the opportunity to speak.”
In court in October, Eam spoke before Kelley and said she felt like she wasn’t free to go because she was under surveillance by local authorities at her aunt’s home and that her car had been towed.
Kelley wrote that while surveillance may be intimidating, the officers were not restricting her movement.
“There is a significant difference between speaking with the police around a table at a family home with relatives present versus an interview in an interrogation at a police station,” Kelley wrote. “This is particularly true when, as here, the Defendant was told up front that she was not under arrest and that Detective Oliver was going to return to Florida after the interview.”
Kelley wrote because Eam chose to stay at her aunt’s home and speak with the detective and was never told she was under arrest, “it is clear” that a “reasonable person” would not think they were under arrest.
In October, Barry’s father, James Barry Sr., told The Palm Beach Post that he was confident the confession would be allowed and that family members would be at every hearing no matter how long the trial takes.
“I do believe in my heart at the end of the day that it will be done. That justice will be served for James,” he said outside of the courtroom in October.
Eam’s next court hearing is set for Feb. 1, according to Palm Beach County records.