‘I did it.’ Ex-boyfriend accused of strangling Barrington Hall woman confessed, cops say
The former boyfriend of a northwest Bibb County woman found dead last month — strangled in her home in the upscale Barrington Hall subdivision — told investigators during questioning, “I did it,” a sheriff’s deputy said at a Wednesday hearing.
The probable cause hearing at the Bibb jail for accused killer Joey Fournier began with investigator Deandre Hall providing a summary of the case against Fournier.
Fournier, 50, charged with murder in the death of Cynthia “Cindy” Berry at her house on Winchester Place in a golf-course community off Zebulon Road, has been in jail since his arrest on Feb. 22.
The authorities believe that on the night of Feb. 20, Fournier went to Berry’s place when a friend, a co-worker of his at a construction firm owned by Berry’s family, drove him there about 7:30 p.m. The friend has since told investigators that Fournier took with him a 12-pack of liquor shots when he was dropped off.
The friend said Fournier called him sometime around 11 p.m. asking to be picked up. According to investigators, the friend told them that when he arrived to pick up Fournier that Fournier was walking in the neighborhood where Berry, 49, lived.
Court documents note that she and Fournier had lived together for much of the past decade but that sometime late last summer they split up and Berry obtained a protective order against Fournier on claims that he physically abused her and, on one occasion, put her in a choke hold.
According to investigator Hall’s testimony at Wednesday’s hearing, the friend said that Fournier pulled a gun on him and demanded the friend take him to some hunting land that Fournier had in the Taylor County countryside between Macon and Columbus.
“Mr. Fournier had stated to (the friend) that he ‘did something bad’ and that he had killed Ms. Berry,” Hall said. “(The friend) stated that Mr. Fournier told him, ‘Just drive.’”
Hall went on to say the friend had said that during the ride Fournier called a relative and said his “goodbyes,” that Fournier “had killed Ms. Berry and he was about to go out to his hunting land and kill himself because he was not about to go to jail for the rest of his life.”
The friend dropped Fournier off near the town of Mauk and then called the authorities during his drive back to Macon.
Investigators track Fournier
Berry’s body was soon found at her house in the wee hours of Feb. 21. with what looked to be a shoe lace around her neck, sheriff’s officials have said.
Investigator Hall said the cops tracked Fournier’s location by “pinging” his cellphone, eventually finding him at a construction site north of Atlanta on Feb. 22.
When Hall questioned Fournier back in Macon later that day, he allegedly told Hall, “I did it,” the investigator testified Wednesday.
Hall said Fournier admitted being at Berry’s house and said they were “having drinks” and that “they got into an argument.”
The investigator said Fournier said “he blacked out” and doesn’t remember anything until after he left Berry’s house.
Magistrate Judge James J. Daniels II ruled there was sufficient probable cause against Fournier and bound the case over to Bibb Superior Court.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.