A 32-year-old Volusia County man was charged with premeditated first-degree murder after authorities said he fatally stabbed his estranged wife’s boyfriend Wednesday afternoon outside the Gary Boulevard home where the three had been living together.
The case moved quickly from an emergency call to a homicide prosecution because investigators said the suspect, Austin Noel, was secured at the scene, the victim later died at a hospital, and court proceedings began the next day. The immediate stakes now center on how prosecutors will argue premeditation, what witness accounts and physical evidence show about the moments before the stabbing, and whether any future filings add details that were still missing from the public record Thursday night.
Deputies were sent to 1028 Gary Blvd. at about 2:50 p.m. March 18 after a report that one man had stabbed another, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. A South Daytona police officer reached the home first and secured Noel without incident, investigators said. The wounded man, later identified as 34-year-old Jacob R. Barrho, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and died later that day. Sheriff Mike Chitwood said early reports showed the stabbing happened on the front porch. By Wednesday evening, detectives had narrowed the case to a domestic conflict involving a husband, his estranged wife and the wife’s boyfriend, all living at the same address. On Thursday, Noel made his first appearance in court and remained jailed without bond. The sheriff’s office said the case began as detectives interviewed witnesses, processed the porch and home, and worked to complete charging paperwork before the formal murder count was announced.
Public accounts from investigators and from an arrest affidavit added a sharper picture of the confrontation while still leaving some gaps. The affidavit said Noel and Barrho were outside speaking when Noel allegedly asked, “What’s your problem with me, man?” Barrho replied that he did not like the way Noel spoke to Cherokee Lewis, according to the document. Investigators said Noel then armed himself with a kitchen knife and stabbed Barrho in the chest. Lewis, who is Barrho’s girlfriend and Noel’s estranged wife, said she saw the attack and tried to stop it. “With Austin’s full consent and knowledge, we both lived down in the spare room,” Lewis said in a television interview, describing the living arrangement that had been in place for months. Noel, according to the affidavit, later told deputies he blacked out during the confrontation. Authorities had not publicly said Thursday how many times Barrho was wounded, whether there had been prior calls for service at the home, or whether any surveillance video exists.
The relationship history behind the case appears central to both the motive question and the prosecution’s timeline. Investigators said Noel and Lewis were still legally married but had unofficially ended their relationship while continuing to live together. Lewis said the household had at one point operated as a polyamorous arrangement, but she later told Noel she no longer wanted that relationship and instead wanted to move forward with Barrho. Noel told deputies the marriage had begun “deteriorating” after he learned Lewis was involved with Barrho, according to the affidavit. He also said he allowed Barrho to move into the home in hopes of preserving some stability and keeping the couple’s son in the house. Lewis said Barrho had moved down from Tennessee and that she had hoped to build a better life with him. Those overlapping accounts do not settle the central legal question, but they explain why detectives quickly focused on the home’s changed personal dynamics rather than on a random attack or outside intruder.
The criminal case is now moving into a more formal stage. The sheriff’s office identified Noel on March 18 and later said he was charged with first-degree murder in Barrho’s death. By Thursday, local court coverage said the charge had been set as premeditated first-degree murder and that a judge ordered Noel held without bond at the Volusia County Branch Jail. That early ruling does not decide guilt, but it keeps Noel in custody while prosecutors and defense lawyers begin working through the evidence. The next key records are likely to include a fuller probable cause narrative, jail and court filings, and medical examiner findings on the cause and manner of Barrho’s death. Investigators also may add or clarify details from witness interviews, physical evidence recovered at the house, and any recorded emergency calls. As of Thursday night, no later hearing date had been widely reported, leaving the next milestone as the release of more detailed court documents.
Lewis’ account gave the case its most personal public voice. She said Noel came home in the middle of the workday, which she described as unusual, and that the confrontation unfolded in front of her. “I tried to keep him awake,” she said, recalling the period after Barrho was wounded and before he was taken away for treatment. In another interview, Lewis said she was “really, really sorry” to Barrho’s friends and his mother. She also said she cut her hands while trying to wrestle the knife away. Around the home, the case left a quiet residential block on Gary Boulevard under homicide investigation for hours as detectives collected evidence and neighbors watched from outside the tape line. Public statements from the sheriff’s office stayed narrow and factual, centered on the porch stabbing, the shared living arrangement and the victim’s death. The emotional fallout, though, was already visible in Lewis’ interviews, where grief, shock and guilt all sat beside the still-unfinished legal record.
As of Thursday night, Barrho was dead, Noel was jailed without bond, and investigators were building a murder case around what they say happened on the porch of the shared home. The next major update is expected to come through court filings or another release that fills in the still-missing details of the confrontation.
Author note: Last updated March 19, 2026.