A Montgomery County judge said he would not postpone the trial for the woman accused of killing her co-worker at an upscale Bethesda yoga store. Judge Robert Greenberg said defense attorneys for 29-year-old Brittany Norwood didn’t articulate why they needed more time to prepare for a potential plea of not criminally responsible.
The so-called insanity plea would mean Norwood’s attorneys would argue that she was too mentally ill to be held responsible in the brutal beating death of Jayna Murray. Murray, 30, was killed in March at the Lululemon Athletica where the pair worked.
Greenberg set a Sept. 12 deadline for defense attorneys to file a not criminally responsible plea and disclose their expert witnesses.
Harry Trainor, an attorney for Norwood, said a mental health expert found that she had a “major mental illness,” but needed time to study interviews and her medical and educational records before making more specific findings. Defense lawyers said Norwood, a former soccer player, has suffered concussions, and they were exploring how those may have affected her mental health.
In court filings and during a Tuesday hearing that lasted for more than an hour, Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy argued that there was no reason that couldn’t be done in time for the Oct. 24 trial.
McCarthy also questioned claims that Norwood suffered from psychological issues. Both Norwood and her brother told authorities she had never been treated for mental illness. In the hospital, after Norwood was found bound at the store, she “played” investigators, saying her only mental issues were “caused by these men who did that to me,” he said.
Douglas Wood, a defense lawyer, argued that “just because someone doesn’t have treatment early on their life doesn’t meant they don’t need treatment later.”
In siding with prosecutors, Greenberg noted that a psychologist assessed Norwood within days of her arrest and defense attorneys confirmed as late as July that they were still on track for the October trial. The judge questioned whether defense attorneys were on a “fishing expedition” for evidence of mental health issues.
Trainor contended that, in insanity cases, “It takes time to put that together.”
Murray’s family also opposed postponing the trial. The family wrote in a letter read in court that the trial was the “single greatest hurdle” to overcome after Murray’s death.
Another hearing is scheduled for Friday.
