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ORLANDO, Fla. – What began as a complicated relationship between a married couple and a third partner ended with a deadly stabbing, according to the woman involved.<\/p>\n
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office reported the incident on Wednesday afternoon, March 18, as a domestic disturbance assault.<\/p>\n
Austin Noel, 32, was later arrested Wednesday for the alleged premeditated murder of Jacob Barrho, 34, on Gary Road in Daytona Beach.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
Cherokee Lewis tells FOX 35 News she was living with her husband, Austin Noel, when the couple invited her boyfriend, Jacob Barrho, to move into their home. For a period of time, the arrangement appeared to work.<\/p>\n
Lewis said she later decided she no longer wanted\u00a0a polyamorous relationship with Noel, so she broke up with him while remaining legally married under the same roof.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Noel unexpectedly returned home during the middle of the workday \u2014 something Lewis said was unusual. A confrontation followed between Noel and Barrho.<\/p>\n
What they’re saying:<\/p>\n
An arrest affidavit said Lewis reported the two men speaking outside, during which Noel allegedly asked Barrho, “What’s your problem with me, man?” Barrho said replied that he didn’t like the way Noel spoke to his wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The situation escalated when Noel allegedly armed himself with a knife from the kitchen and stabbed Barrho in the chest, according to investigators.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite efforts to intervene, Barrho was rushed to the hospital, where he later died.<\/p>\n
“I never once thought bringing him down here [from Tennessee] would result in this. I was trying to give him a better life,” Lewis said, while apologizing to Barrho\u2019s family.<\/p>\n
She said the dynamics of the home completely shifted when she ended the romantic relationship with her husband.<\/p>\n
“I slowly started to put boundaries forth and explain that I didn\u2019t want to be in a polyamorous relationship, that I just wanted to move on and\u2026 start trying to build a life up for myself with Jacob.”<\/p>\n
She told detectives she believed Noel made a decision to carry out the alleged attack before he left work that day.<\/p>\n
“He never comes home from working in the middle of the day ever. Never has,” she said.<\/p>\n
She claims, shortly before the alleged stabbing, he walked into the home and delivered and eerie message to their child.”<\/p>\n
“I heard him talking to our son\u2026 saying, \u2018I love you, goodbye,\u2019 and I just thought that he was going to go back to work,” she said, “… [and then he] plunged\u00a0 the knife into Jacob\u2019s heart.”<\/p>\n
Lewis suffered cuts to her hands, trying to wrestle the knife away.<\/p>\n
Noel alleged his wife cheated on him <\/p>\n
The other side:<\/p>\n
Noel told deputies his relationship with his wife started “deteriorating,” the affidavit said, when he found out she had been talking with Barrho. He confronted her about having an affair, and a few weeks later, Barrho moved into their home, Noel told deputies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Noel claimed he let Barrho move in, hoping he could improve his relationship with his wife and keep his son living in the home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Blacked out\u2019 <\/p>\n
Before the stabbing, Noel claimed Barrho told him, “I’m done with your (expletive),” before he blacked out and then remembered his wife pulling him off of Barrho and having blood on him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noel denied being under the influence of alcohol, drugs or prescribed medication, the affidavit said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Noel was arrested and charged with first-degree premeditated murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What’s next:<\/p>\n
At his first court appearance, the judge let him know he would be held without bond.<\/p>\n
The Source: This story was written based on information shared by the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, court proceedings on March 19, 2026, and a FOX 35 interview with Cherokee Lewis.<\/p>\n
Volusia County News<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. – What began as a complicated relationship between a married couple and a third partner ended…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[630,47,28,30,29,115,628,2261],"class_list":["post-200656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-news","tag-us","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}