Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Woman Convicted Of Stabbing Boyfriend To Death With Butcher Knife After He Dumped Her
Melanie Eam faces life behind bars for stabbing on-again-off-again boyfriend James Barry seven times after he broke up with her in 2016.
A Florida woman may spend the rest of her life behind bars after being convicted for stabbing her former boyfriend to death after he dumped her.
Melanie Eam, 22, was found guilty of second-degree murder Thursday for the 2016 death of her ex James Barry, WPTV in West Palm Beach reports.
Barry was found stabbed to death inside his Loxahatchee Acreage, Florida home. Prosecutors claim that after Barry dumped her, Eam stabbed him seven times with a butcher knife, according to WPBF in West Palm Beach. She then fled to Maryland, where she later allegedly confessed before being brought back to Florida in cuffs.
During Eam’s trial, her defense attempted to point the finger at Guy Hand, the boyfriend of Barry's mother, for the murder. During the trial, defense attorney Bruce Lehr suggested that Hand was arguing with Eam over her on-again-off-again relationship with Barry, according to WPTV. When Barry stepped in to protect Eam, Lehr contended, Hand stabbed him.
Prosecutor Scott Reid countered that if Hand was responsible, Eam would've told police that when they questioned her.
“You can use your common sense,” he told jurors. “You’re sitting in a place where you’re safe, you’re with two officers. If you watched another man kill the person that you say you love, that’s when you say: 'Look, Guy Hand is the one who stabbed him. James and I were in an argument, Guy Hand came in.’"
The jurors found Eam guilty. It’s a different result than the last time she was on trial. Last fall, there was a hung jury over whether or not to convict Eam of murder or manslaughter, CBS12 in West Palm Beach reported.
Eam will be sentenced on April 3.
[Photo: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office]
