A Volusia County man is jailed on a premeditated first-degree murder charge after authorities said he fatally stabbed his estranged wife’s boyfriend on the front porch of their Gary Boulevard home Wednesday afternoon.
The case drew quick attention because detectives say the suspect, the victim and the woman at the center of the dispute had all been sharing the same house, turning a homicide investigation into a closely watched domestic case. Austin Noel, 32, was ordered held without bond after his first court appearance Thursday. Investigators have outlined the basic allegation, but they have not publicly answered several key questions, including how long the argument lasted, whether there were prior calls to the home, and what physical evidence beyond the knife and witness accounts may shape the prosecution.
Deputies were sent to 1028 Gary Blvd. at about 2:50 p.m. Wednesday 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 Jacob R. Barrho, 34, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and died later that day. The sheriff’s office said its initial investigation showed the stabbing happened on the front porch. By Wednesday night, detectives had publicly tied the case to a domestic conflict inside the shared household. On Thursday, the sheriff’s office identified Noel as the defendant and said he had been charged with first-degree murder. A judge later ordered him to remain in the Volusia County Branch Jail without bond while the case moves forward.
Public details from investigators and local television reports added a clearer but still incomplete picture of the moments before the killing. An arrest affidavit described an exchange outside the home in which Noel allegedly confronted Barrho and asked, “What’s your problem with me, man?” Barrho, the document said, answered that he did not like the way Noel spoke to Cherokee Lewis, Noel’s estranged wife and Barrho’s girlfriend. Investigators say Noel then got a kitchen knife and stabbed Barrho in the chest. Lewis told reporters she saw the attack and tried to intervene as the men struggled near the porch and yard. She said she cut her own hands while trying to take the knife away. Authorities have not publicly said whether Barrho was stabbed more than once, whether body camera footage captured the aftermath, or whether any neighbor video exists. They also have not released a fuller probable cause narrative beyond the affidavit details described in local coverage.
The living arrangement is likely to sit near the center of both the prosecution’s theory and any future defense argument. Investigators say Noel and Lewis were still legally married but had unofficially ended their relationship while continuing to live together. Barrho had moved into the home earlier this year, according to the sheriff’s office. Lewis told television stations the arrangement was not hidden from Noel and had been in place for months. She said she had once been part of a polyamorous relationship with Noel but later decided she no longer wanted that setup and instead wanted to build a future with Barrho. In one interview, Lewis said she and Barrho had been staying in a spare room because Noel said he could not afford the mortgage alone. Those details do not decide the criminal case, but they help explain why detectives quickly treated the stabbing as a domestic homicide tied to a changing household relationship rather than a random assault or break-in.
What happens next will likely turn on records that are not yet public. Prosecutors will need to show why they believe the killing was premeditated, a step above a lesser homicide charge. That may depend on witness statements, the timing of the argument, Noel’s movements before the stabbing, and what investigators recover from the porch, the kitchen and any phones or cameras tied to the people in the house. As of Thursday evening, no later hearing date had been widely reported. The medical examiner’s findings on Barrho’s cause and manner of death may add precision to the case file, and additional court documents could clarify what Noel told deputies after his arrest. For now, the public court posture is narrow: Noel has been charged, he has appeared before a judge, and he remains jailed without bond while formal filings continue to build out the homicide case.
The most emotional public account has come from Lewis, who described the killing in terms of shock, guilt and helplessness. She told WESH that she was “trying to keep him awake” as Barrho faded before paramedics took him to the hospital. She also apologized publicly to Barrho’s friends and his mother, saying she never imagined that inviting him to Florida would end in violence. Around the house, neighbors told local reporters the homicide scene stood out on an otherwise quiet residential block, with detectives remaining for hours behind crime scene tape while they photographed the property and collected evidence. The sheriff’s office has kept its own public statements short and factual, focusing on the porch stabbing, the shared home and the arrest. That leaves Lewis’ interviews as the clearest public window into the human cost behind the legal file now taking shape in Volusia County.
As of Thursday night, Barrho was dead, Noel was jailed without bond, and investigators were still assembling the record behind the murder charge. The next public milestone is expected to come through additional court filings, a future hearing date or a more detailed release explaining what detectives believe happened on the porch.
Author note: Last updated March 19, 2026.