Patricia “Tricia” Joseph on July 30, 2017, with her family at home in Newport News, Virginia.
She was watching TV with her two sons, her new boyfriend and her father. Suddenly, Joseph’s ex-boyfriend — and the father of the two boys — knocked on the door. And when someone opened the door, he started shooting.
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And when the gunshots stopped, Joseph was dead, along with her father, Jessie Abraham Barnes. The other three people in the home were unharmed.
Five years later, Amos Jacob “A.J.” Arroyo, 36, has been convicted of two counts of first-degree murder as well as other charges. He had no reaction to his conviction, according to WTKR-TV.
During last week’s trial in Newport News Circuit Court, one of the boys, now 11, who was watching TV with Joseph testified in court about what he remembered on the night of the shooting, which happened when he was just 6 years old.
“My dad started shooting … and I saw my dad coming inside the house,” the boy told the jurors. He testified that his mother “had gotten shot to the ground.”
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“I followed my grandpa because I saw him running to the bathroom,” the boy continued, adding that his father chased Barnes into the bathroom and shot him to death.
Joseph’s boyfriend survived the attack and also testified last week, according to the Daily Press.
Jonathan Yeanan said that he had been dating Joseph for about six months when she was killed. He testified that he was about to leave when Arroyo knocked on the door.
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“[Joseph] looked out the window, and said, ‘Oh my God,'” Yeanan told a 911 dispatcher in the moments after the shooting. “Next thing you know, shots were fired and she said, ‘Oh, my God, he shot me.'”
Yeanan said he survived the attack by hiding in a closet, while the other boy, whose reported age is just a year old, in the house was also unharmed. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 2. Arroyo faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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