On August 7th, 2019, Olympic horse trainer, Michael Barisone, shot his student and tenant, Lauren Kanarek, twice in the chest.

When police arrive at the scene, they see Lauren's fiance, Robert Goodman, beating Michael. Robert will claim that Michael shot at him and missed.

Miraculously, Lauren survived her life-threatening injuries, and would go on to testify against the man who shot her.

As details about Kanarek and Goodman emerge, what previously seemed like a clear-cut case becomes murkier.

The media learns that prior to the shooting, Lauren and Rob had been harassing Michael and his then-girlfriend, Mary Haskins-Gray, for months.

Lauren had been taunting Michael with threatening Facebook messages, secretly recording and posting his private conversations, taking measures to have him evicted from his home, and making serious allegations and reports against him to multiple agencies.

Before the shooting, Michael and Mary hire a private investigator. They discover that Lauren and Rob have checkered criminal histories that include charges of assault, harassment, and stalking. They also learn that Lauren has a history of targeting her 'enemies' and attempting to destroy them.

On the morning of the shooting, Lauren texts Rob and says finish the bastard off.

But when a worker from Child Protective Services arrives at Michael's farm and informs Michael that a complaint has been made against him, the tables turn.

Michael's attorney, Edward Bilinkas, says in his opening statement that everyone has a breaking point. And on August 7th, 2019, Michael reached his.

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This is the second episode in a multi-part series on the trial of Michael Barisone. In this episode, we discuss the witness testimony of Lauren Kanarek, the woman Michael shot twice on August 7th, 2019.

Michael Barisone was charged with 2 counts of attempted murder and 2 counts of unlawful use of a firearm.

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Michael will plead insanity in this trial. He'll claim that at the time of the shooting, he had a mental disease or defect that prevented him from understanding the nature of his actions or their wrongness.

He'll claim that he has no memory of what happened between the time he drove to Lauren's and woke up in the hospital. The prosecution will argue he's feigning amnesia.

Who's right?

Did Rob and Lauren push Michael to his breaking point and drive him insane?

Or was Michael a man who attempted to murder his tenants when they wouldn't leave?

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Murder in the court is a weekly podcast where I analyze and dissect high-profile crime cases. Thanks for checking out the show!

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