A jury on Wednesday night found Brittany Norwood guilty of first-degree murder in the beating death of her co-worker at a Bethesda yoga store.
The jury deliberated about an hour before returning its verdict against Norwood, who could spend the rest of her life in prison for killing 30-year-old Jayna Murray. Norwood will be sentenced Jan. 27 in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
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Prosecutors said Norwood, 29, lured Murray to the Lululemon Athletica in Bethesda where both women worked, then brutally beat her to death. Norwood’s attorneys admitted Murray was killed in a fight between the two, but said the attack was not premeditated.
“The jurors were all leaning towards first-degree murder from the beginning of the deliberations,” juror Donny Knepper said outside the courtoom after the verdict was announced. “They were really persuaded by the number of injuries Murray suffered while she was still alive.”
In closing arguments, State’s Attorney John McCarthy tried to portray Norwood as a cunning woman who staged a crime scene and posed as a victim. She faked shoe prints and cut herself “to throw the investigation off, away from her,” he said. Her lies “terrified this entire community.”
The jury of six men and six women considered charges of first- and second-degree murder. To prove the first-degree charge, prosecutors had to show that the killing was willful, deliberate and premeditated.
McCarthy said the killing was planned, telling jurors that there was enough time for the two to have an argument overheard by employees at the adjacent Apple Store, and that Norwood moved around the store during the fight to pick up at least five different weapons.
“There are decisions being made here,” he said.
Earlier Wednesday, Dr. Mary Ripple, Maryland’s deputy medical examiner, testified that Murray was alive when she suffered the 331 stab wounds, cuts and bruises found on her dead body. The fatal blow was likely a stab wound to the base of her head that chipped a neck bone, went through her skull and into her brain, Ripple said.
“I felt the brutality was indescribable,” Phyllis Murray, Jayna’s mother, said after the verdict was read.
The prosecution’s “trump card,” said McCarthy was tapes of her conversations with detectives — including statements about two masked men beating Murray and sexually assaulting her that turned out be made up.
But defense attorney Douglas Wood argued that Norwood should be convicted of second-degree murder, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years behind bars.
The lies that Norwood told police show she was “the exact opposite of cunning” and the killing was not premeditated, Wood said in court. “She is clueless, so she spins out this story that makes no sense,” he said.
Wood said after the verdict that Norwood had been “remorseful from day one.”
Murray’s family expressed relief at the verdict. After the jury foreman announced that Norwood was convicted of first-degree murder, a whispered “yes” was heard in the courtroom.
