A Stab In The Dark - The Lululemon Murder (Part 2)
Image courtesy of ABC News
Part 2
A Stab In The Dark
(If you have not had a chance to read Part 1, click here first and come back to finish the story)
With all the money missing from the store's safes, the violent attacks seemed to be the result of a robbery gone wrong, but Detective Dimitry Ruvin realized that the amount of trauma that Jayna suffered wasn't normal. As mentioned in part 1, detectives interviewed Brittany Norwood at the hospital, where she told authorities two men in black ski masks had followed both women inside the store, to which they then beat and sexually assaulted them. According to Brittany, the masked men also used racial slurs during the attack, but as detectives dug a little deeper into her testimony, they realized her story didn't add up.
The detectives realized that they had to start all over and review the case files from the beginning. Brittany now became the main suspect in Jayna Murray’s murder and they needed evidence to be able to properly charge her. Going back through the evidence, the detectives pointed out that the supposed attackers didn’t bring their own weapons to the robbery. They didn’t bring guns, knives, or anything that would be of use if they premeditated this murder. They had only used items that were already inside this Lululemon store, such as the items in the toolbox and a metal peg bar. The zip ties that were used to tie up Brittany also weren’t even items that belonged to the murderers; they were zip ties that were used for merchandising around the store and were kept near the toolbox. What really raised eyebrows for detectives was the robbers wouldn’t have had a way to break into the store if they didn’t bring their own weapons, so how were they planning on breaking in, to begin with? They came after closing time, so the attackers anticipated the store to be closed with no one inside and most likely didn’t expect the women to come back to reopen the store doors. Not just that, but it seemed as if they knew the layout of the store and what was placed where pretty well.
There were so many different wound patterns on the women from the various weapons used to attack them: a hammer, wrench, a large random rock the authorities found next to Brittany, etc., meaning the assailants were leaving the women alone in the back room, with a lot of empty time between blows, to search for more items to beat the women with within the store. Detectives also pointed out that with previous robberies they’ve encountered, a robber would more than likely take all the money and leave as soon as possible to prevent getting caught, and they wouldn’t drag anyone to a backroom to attack them knowing they didn’t have any weapons on them, and a robber wouldn't leave them alone for long periods of time to search for items to attack with.
Adding to the detective’s suspicions, was the inconsistency with the bloody footprints left on the floor in the back room of the store. As previously mentioned in part one, a set of large and a set of small footprints were found around the room, placing two people at the scene of the crime, but there should have been four. Brittany’s, Jayna’s, and the two attackers, so why were there only two? It made sense if Jayna’s prints weren’t there as they concluded she could’ve been dead before the trails started, but there would’ve been at the very least three. They found a pair of men’s size 14 Reebok sneakers in the store covered in blood and it was initially theorized that one of the attackers ditched the bloody shoes before he left. When speaking to the store manager, Rachel, police mentioned the items that they found in the store that were potentially clues to finding the attackers. Rachel surprisingly advised police not to really worry about those sneakers as they were the property of the store. They used for customers who wanted to try on their clothing and might possibly have the wrong shoes to visualize the completed outfit.
Image courtesy of DailyMail.Co.Uk
There was the theory that one of the murderers put these shoes on while committing the murder to prevent their own shoes from getting bloody, but again, that would mean that the killers would have sufficient knowledge on what was in the back room and where it was precisely stored. The layout of the blood prints also didn’t add up, as the larger prints were layered over the smaller footprints as if they were purposely stamped over the smaller ones and this wouldn’t really be likely if you had two murderers walking around each other at various times.
Image courtesy of Oxygen’s “Snapped” Episode 14
An obvious clue, one that you may have caught on to in part one, Brittany and Jayna had very different injuries from one another. Jayna was stabbed 331 times, while Brittany had superficial cuts and a pretty small gash on her forehead. The attack on Jayna seemed personal, so perhaps she was the main target and Brittany was just at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or could it be something a little deeper than that?
Going back to the Apple employee’s recollection of the night, they stated that they did indeed heard the voices of two women arguing, but detectives realized there were voices they didn’t hear… the voices of the male attackers.
Brittany also mentioned in the interrogation interview that the men had yelled racial slurs at her and knew her address, so they obviously had done more research on her than Jayna, so why was Jayna so brutally attacked and not Brittany, if Brittany was the original target? And why would they try to attack her after closing time and not at her home if she was supposed to be on her way home? A possibility was that Brittany was in on the attack with the robbers, which would help explain how they knew their way around the store so well and why they spared her life. Investigators needed to start digging up some information on Brittany and find out who she really was.
Brittany came from a pretty good upbringing. She was a skilled soccer player, her position being defender, in Federal Way, Washington to which the Seattle Times printed her name twice in a list of All-League Teams. She went on to play for Stony Brook University in New York, where she was she was named Defensive Most Valuable Player for one season. Police then discovered some of her former teammates remembered Brittany for more than just her athletic ability. On former teammate recalled Brittany had a reputation among her teammates as a liar and a thief. Other girls on the team that had known her long enough had told investigators that things would go missing, and the girls on the team would tell each other to “watch your locker, keep it locked, she's been known to steal things.” The accusations of theft would eventually cost Brittany her spot on the team ad the coach dropped her due to the accusations.
The suspicions of theft didn’t stop after college. After her arrest for Jayna’s murder, an old hairstylist old Brittany’s claimed she had failed to pay for a full weave of imported hair. The stylist had written in a Facebook post that at the end of her service, Brittany claimed that someone in the salon had stolen her money out of her wallet. The hairstylist was so upset that something like theft could’ve happened at her place of work, so she immediately told her not to worry about payment. As time went on, Brittany called her to say that she would bring the money owed for the hair in at a later time. She never showed up with the money and later blocked the stylist from her Facebook page. The owner of the salon validated the stylist’s claims, noting that Brittany caused a scene and tried to blame one of her employees. The owner recalled Brittany had claimed that there was more than $1,000 stolen from her purse that she left in the salon’s waiting area, even though there had been a receptionist sitting at her post through the entire appointment and saw no one touch the purse.
“We couldn’t hold her, so we had to let her go,” the owner also said. “I mean, what could we do?”
There were other claims of petty theft against Brittany, including scamming her own roommates out of money, claiming the rent to their apartment had gone up but just pocketed the extra cash. She also would lie about graduating from college, stating that she graduated with a degree in Sociology and Psychology when really she was expelled for stealing and poor attendance. Police also discovered that when Brittany was in her early 20s, she and an old boyfriend had broken up and she wasn’t able to accept that he was able to move on. She began texting and harassing her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, and at one point broke into their home and stole electronics and other personal items from the new couple. The ex-boyfriend eventually filed a restraining order on Brittany, which she violated on multiple occasions and continued to stalk him for months after it was placed.
Image from The World Protection Group
The most interesting thing they found out during the investigation of Brittany’s character, was the store manager, Rachel, mentioned to police that Jayna and Brittany didn’t really get along that well. Brittany was suspected of stealing from the store and from other coworkers, and the concern called for a meeting between managers and keyholders to discuss the accusations against Brittany. This meeting concluded with the agreement that whoever found her stealing again would report it immediately, and would submit for her termination. If you aren’t aware of how most retail stores in the US work if you have a bag and leave the store, it is a protocol that managers check each employee’s bag before they leave the store to make sure unpaid merchandise isn’t inside. The day before the murder took place, Jayna had reported to Rachel that she suspected Brittany of stealing a pair of leggings, yet again. She told Rachel that she went to perform a bag check, with the suspicion Brittany stole another pair of leggings, but Brittany mentioned that another employee already checked her bag. Skeptical, Jayna asked the employee who Brittany said checked her bag, and no surprise to Jayna, that employee didn’t check Brittany’s bag and she had lied again.
The forensic testing of Jayna’s car at this point had completed. The analysis concluded a lot of Jayna’s and Brittany’s blood was in the car. That on its own wasn’t suspicious, as they anticipated that to be the case assuming the attacker drove the car covered in their blood. What did give them the red flag that Brittany was undoubtfully involved, was a baseball cap with blood in it. The blood was found on the inside of the cap, in the center of the sweatband which was also around the area that Brittany had received her gash during the attack, and that required stitches. The blood on the hat was verified as Brittany’s.
The team invited Brittany back to the interrogation room for more questioning, not immediately making it aware that she went from victim to a suspect. They asked her questions about the car again, specifically, the question of “where was Jayna’s car parked when you returned to the store?”
Again, Brittany claimed that Jayna parked it right in front of the store as they were planning to just run in and out. Police knew this wasn’t the case (because of the baseball cap) so they asked Brittany about the zip ties that were used to tie her wrist and her ankles, specifically, where did they come from? Brittany replied that they came from one of the men’s backpacks, which police knew was a lie due to the fact they were the exact same ties that belonged to the store. Not only so, but if you tie your own wrists together, you can’t use your hands to tighten the zip tie, you’d need to use your teeth, to which detectives found teeth marks on the zip ties cut from Brittany’s wrists. She then expressed she was still in shock of the night and everything was a blur, and asked if she could go home as the interview was emotionally straining. So they let her go, for the time being.
Now please remember there were no major injuries to Brittany, most were superficial injuries with only two requiring stitches; the gash on her forehead and one on the webbing between her index finger and her thumb. Experts on the case stated that from a physics point of view, the injury was consistent from a blade. It was comparable to holding a knife, it slips because of a lubricating substance (such as blood) and you grab it again at the blade to prevent it from falling out of your hands. So if her hands were tied up the entire time, how did she have the capability to hold the knife and use it with such force, to slice her hand that way? They also examined the injury to her forehead, which was an odd location for the gash to be as investigators pointed out that if it was received during a struggle, the attacker wouldn’t necessarily target the center of her forehead but more so the sides of the head… BUT if she was kneeling on top of Jayna, in a stabbing motion, she would be using so much force that she possibly brought her hands up too far and hit herself in the center of the forehead.
They also got the results from Brittany’s rape kit that showed there was no male DNA found or signs of forced penetration. This obviously concluded that she lied about being raped. All the evidence came together for Detective Ruvin, and the gig was up… she officially became the main suspect in Jayna’s murder.
Brittany then would come back to the police station for more questioning, and this time she adds that she remembers that the murderers made her go through Jayna’s belongings to find the keys and drive her car away to a park nearby. The same park where an officer had spotted it sitting idle with someone inside. So she wanted the police to believe that they forced her to drive the car, three blocks away, see the police car drive by and not waive for help, and still voluntarily walked three blocks back to where the murderers were? At this point, they knew she was full of shit. They confronted her saying they didn’t believe anything she was saying, and Brittany broke down crying, with whimpers of “I’ve told you everything I know” in between. The officers explained there was just so much evidence against her, listing every inconsistency, every hole in her stories, and even how forensic evidence started to point to her. She stayed quiet, and whispered, “can I just go home now?"
The officers ask for a minute and left her in the interrogation room. When they returned, they brought in her brother, Chris, and sister, Marissa. They hoped that by bringing in these two trusted family members and relisting all the evidence against her with them in the room, she would see the effects it had on her siblings. When they did so, Marissa broke down and was so distraught she needed to step out of the room. Police asked Brittany if she wanted a minute along with Chris while they comforted Marissa on the outside. Chris sits next to Brittany, and asks “did you do this? You need to tell me so we can sort this out.” Brittany is recorded on audio saying, “I don’t want to talk about it here.
This was enough for authorities to make their next move. On March 18, 2011, Brittany was arrested for murder.
The most likely scenario for Brittany snapping and murdering Jayna, was she found out that the Lululemon staff was on to her stealing. It’s believed that Brittany called Jayna back to discuss the accusations, but after the discussion turned into an argument, she had lost her ability to think that night. No one will really ever know what happened that night, especially since Brittany has never spoken openly about the conversation they had.
Brittany’s defense attorney argued that this wasn't premeditated murder, but rather an undiagnosed mental disorder as no one with a sound mind could commit such atrocities and leave a sloppy trail of evidence behind. Her trial was set to begin on Jan 18, 2012.
Her defense attorney, Douglas Wood, started opening statements with “Ladies and gentlemen, Brittany Norwood lost it. There’s no doubt about that. She lost it. She lost control.” The defense’s hope was that jurors would conclude that things started as a fight between the women and that Brittany never had the intent required for a first-degree murder conviction. This made all the difference as premeditated murder in Maryland has the possibility of life with no chance for parole. Second-degree murder would give her a maximum of 30 years in prison with a chance for release after 15 years.
Under Maryland law, premeditation can happen within seconds. The prosecution’s strategy was the longer they were able to draw out the attack in the jurors’ minds, the stronger their case became. The trial lasted six days. Just before being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of on Jan. 27, 2012, Brittany gave an apology to Jayna’s family who sat in the second row of a packed courtroom, haltingly starting her statement by saying she had considered whether she should say anything at all. The Murray family was hurt and confused after all, as they initially felt so much sympathy for Brittany believing that she too was a victim, not the person who killed their beloved Jayna.
“For the Murray family—what do I say when your daughter’s gone and I’m the one convicted of her murder? I know what I say today won’t take the pain away over the loss of Jayna. I hope for the Murray family, someday you’ll be able to find forgiveness in your heart. I am truly sorry.”
Judge Robert A. Greenberg rejected Brittany's plea for a sentence that would allow her the possibility of parole, so he could "leave me with some hope." He fiercely responded to her plea, "I am exceedingly reluctant to grant you even the slightest chance of doing this to another member of the community.”
He continued,
“After every blow, you had a chance to think about what you were doing. You were devious, in control, totally on top of the situation, while you lied to try to get out of what you had done; You are one hell of a liar, ma’am.”
Brittany was sentenced to life without parole.
R.I.P Jayna Murray
November 22, 1980 - March 11, 2011
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