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Fernando Ariano

Man sentenced 10 years for killing brother

By PRESTON GILL pgill@daily-review.com

Fernando Ariano, 35, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on July 31 and was sentenced in state court Monday to 10 years in prison for the Aug. 30, 2013, killing of his brother, Mario Barahona, in Morgan City after an evening of drinking at the Shrimp and Petroleum Festival.
A news release from the St. Mary Parish Sheriff’s office said the morning of his sentencing Ariano was charged with possession of contraband in a penal institution after deputies found a SIM card on him. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Traci Landry could not say if the search and arrest occurred before or after Ariano went to the courthouse for his sentencing.
When Ariano pleaded guilty, 16th Judicial District Judge Edward Leonard Jr. told him, through an interpreter, that the maximum sentence he faced on the charge was 40 years in jail. Ariano acknowledged that he understood the agreement with the state for a guilty plea was for him to serve no more than 10 years, court transcripts state.
Anthony Saleme, assistant district attorney, told the court the state was prepared to prove that Ariano, the victim and their nephew, Christopher Ariano, had returned to their Federal Avenue home after drinking at the festival and Ariano and his nephew began arguing, the transcripts state. Ariano produced a gun, Barahona attempted to intervene and was inadvertently shot in the course of an aggravated assault with a firearm, Saleme said in the transcript.
Ariano agreed that version of events was substantially correct, according to the transcripts.
The nephew told police Fernando Ariano became upset and began arguing with him when he asked about buying some cocaine, the Morgan City police arrest affidavit stated.
The nephew accused his uncle of getting a gun from underneath a bed in the apartment and pointing it at him and the victim. He said his uncle shot Barahona then struck him in the head with the gun and fled the house.
Fernando Ariano’s statement to the police was similar in most details. Ariano said he consumed a significant amount of alcohol including a 12-pack of beer and three or four large cups of alcoholic beverages from the festival. He said his brother and nephew had consumed about the same amount of alcohol.
He denied the argument with his nephew was over drugs, but did admit there was an argument and Barahona had told him to leave his nephew alone, and he did so. He admitted getting the revolver and holding it in his lap. He said Barahona asked him if he was going to shoot him and told him to put the gun away. Fernando Ariano said he was not going to shoot, but the gun discharged while in his hand. Ariano said he threw the gun down and his nephew tried to keep him there, but he pushed his nephew away and bolted into a nearby wooded area.
There were two other occupants in the house at the time of the shooting. They both said they were asleep in another room when they heard what appeared to be an argument between the two brothers. Then they heard a single shot and they called the police.
When police arrived they noticed that inside and outside the house, the scene was littered with “numerous empty beer bottles and “Hurricane” cups consistent with those which could be purchased at the festival.
Police said they began searching for Fernando Ariano from the time that they responded into the early morning. At about 7 a.m. the road patrol located and detained him at the residence where the shooting occurred.
Ariano was indicted by a St. Mary Parish grand jury on Oct. 28 in Franklin.

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