Melanie Eam was found guilty of second-degree murder in the November 2016 death of 21-year-old James Barry. He had broken up with her in messages posted on League of Legends.

WEST PALM BEACH — Assistant State Attorney Lauren Godden read Thursday from the messages Melanie Eam and James Barry exchanged over a video game as he broke up their two-year, on-again, off-again relationship in 2016.

"Oh, you forgot about me."

"I thought we were happy."

"Thanks for just leaving me through a (League of Legends) chat."

To add to Eam's heartbreak, Godden said, when she went to talk with Barry during the early morning hours of Nov. 17, 2016, at his Loxahatchee home, he told her that he hadn't loved her for months.

"That hurts. That would hurt any human being," Godden said during closing arguments. "But she acted like an unreasonable person and decided she's going to take out a large butcher knife and stab him with it."

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After two days of trial, four hours of deliberations and five questions for the judge, the six-person jury found Melanie Eam, 22, guilty of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of Barry, who was 21 when he was killed. Eam, an Acreage resident, is scheduled to be sentenced April 3 before Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley.

Outside of the courtroom, Barry's family gathered, hugging and crying.

"We've spent the last 26, almost 27, months in terms of waiting for this day and we got what we were looking for," said Barry's father, also named James, said. "I hope the judge actually gives her the maximum sentence he could possibly do, because even that won't bring James back."

Nicola Barry, James Barry's mother, said they were happy with the verdict and now there is justice for her son.

"We're very happy that this nightmare is over," Nicola Barry said.

During closing arguments, Godden told the jury that even though defense attorney Bruce Lehr wanted them to believe someone else stabbed Barry, Eam was the only one who confessed to it, the only one who fled the state and the only one the evidence points to.

"You can’t have sympathy for Miss Eam because she’s a young female, or that you feel bad that her boyfriend broke up with her on a League chat. It’s not something you can consider," Godden reminded the jury during her closing arguments.

Hours before the stabbing, Barry broke up with Eam in messages on the video game, according to prosecutors. She drove to the home, confronted Barry, grabbed a butcher knife from a kitchen drawer and stabbed him, investigators said. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detectives say she fled to a relative's home in Maryland immediately after the stabbing and later confessed to stabbing Barry.

Eam's first trial ended in a mistrial in September after jurors could not come to a consensus after two days of deliberations. Four jurors voted to convict Eam of second-degree murder, while the remaining two leaned toward the lesser charge of manslaughter.

During trial Wednesday, prosecutors questioned those in the house the morning of the stabbing, as well as detectives and crime-scene investigators. Guy Hand, Barry's mother's live-in boyfriend, recalled waking up to the sounds of screams, then trying to perform CPR and chest compressions on Barry, but instead feeling the young man die in his arms.

Lehr alleged Hand was the one who stabbed Barry after the 21-year-old attempted to break up an argument between Hand and Eam. Hand denied the allegations and investigators said there was no indication Hand was involved in Barry's death.

After Hand was questioned by Lehr on Wednesday, Godden asked him directly if he stabbed his girlfriend's son.

"No, ma'am. I loved him," he replied as his voice broke and he put a facial tissue to his eyes.

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During closing arguments, Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott said Eam never pointed to anyone else as the culprit. He said the evidence is clear that Eam took Barry's life because her heart was broken. He said "love can turn to hate and evil intent in a second."

“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned," Scott quoted from William Congreve's 1697 play, "The Mourning Bride."

"It’s never been more illustrated than in a case like this," Scott said. "The case of Melanie Eam. The death of James Barry. “

"The prosecutor has quoted a 1697 poet and basically said, 'Well, you know how women are. This is nothing new.' I'm surprised (Eam) wasn't going to be burned as a witch," Lehr said. "But this isn't 1697."

Lehr said the relationship was on-again, off-again and each time it was "off-again" in the past, no one died.

He went back over the case, asking the jury to question why Hand would move the murder weapon, how a 90-pound woman could cause a slight bend in the tip of a butcher knife after striking Barry, why Eam's DNA wasn't given to experts to rule out in the evidence, or why, when she was answering questions during giving her confession, was so much of her dialogue was inaudible.



"The purpose of the jury is to decide, not 'Oh maybe she did it.' Or 'Perhaps she did it.' Or 'I could see, maybe she did it,' ” he said. "You took an oath. The oath is to decide was each and every element of this crime proven beyond any reasonable doubt.”