Snapped: Women Who Murder - Brittany Norwood

Episode Date: February 7, 2021

A look at the brutal murder of Jayna Murray, who was stabbed over 300 times by Brittany Norwood in a yoga store. What caused her violent colleague to snap?Season 9, Episode 19Originally aired: October 14, 2012See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, the host of Wonder East Podcast American Scandal. Our newest series looks at the story of OxyContin, a popular painkiller that helps spur an epidemic of addiction and drug abuse, in which prompted a broad campaign to hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable. Listen to American Scandal on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Brittany Norwood was an ambitious young woman with a bright future. She's friendly, she's engaging, she's athletic. She wanted to be a personal trainer.

But her dreams were put on hold when a shocking crime occurred at the upscale yoga shop where she worked. One person seems that any other person is breathing. No one would have expected something like that to happen there. Was the brutal slaying the result of a robbery? We ain't taught you if they said another word. It's let me throw it. Or was the truth even more shocking? Wait, one of them killed the other.

She had to have lost her mind. This is someone who just snapped. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background,scale suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. Bethesda is a very affluent community of place. It's very safe. There's low crime. There's a lot of pedestrian traffic and shops where people will do a lot of window shopping. It's also very

pricey and very nice and everything's put together just, you know, almost perfectly. And in Bethesda, the trendy sportswear store called Lululemon Athletica fit right in. It's a yoga store that it preaches, you know, serenity and peace. However, the scene awaiting the store manager when she walked in at 8th that morning

was anything but peaceful. The door was unlocked, the store ransacked. She noticed the clothing that was strewn on the floor. There appeared to be some blood on the floor. She moved a few feet in and then heard moaning. That panicked her. Frightened, the manager dashed outside and dial 911 I'm opening up my Louisville women's door and art the door was completely open and I hear someone mowing in the back And it looks like it's been banned alive and I'm just really scared to go in the police were soon on their way

While the manager waited outside for them to arrive a bystander approached and asked the visibly distraught woman what was wrong. When the manager explained the situation, the bystander volunteered to check things out. The man goes inside and walks all the way to the back of the store. He starts to see blood. The blood trail appeared to lead to a hallway in the back of the store. He tries to open this door to this back room and there's something heavy leaning against the store. Finally, the man managed to force the door open a few inches.

He kind of peaks. Peaks in is able to look in and then seize the body laying there. It was a 30-year-old store clerk named Jena Murray, and she was dead. There was an extraordinary amount of blood at the scene. It was horrific. We're talking about a victim who sustained over 300 different blows to her body. It was horrific.

The violence was terrible. But as the man began to hurry back outside, he suddenly stopped. He turns around and hears this moaning sound. Was the young woman lying dead on the floor the only victim racing to the source of the sound. The man found another young woman lying on the floor in a nearby bathroom.

Her hands are tied up, her legs are tied up. And, you know, she's kind of moaning, kind of making these sounds like she maybe she's conscious, maybe not, but she's hurting. She was another clerk, 28-year-old Brittany Norwood, and she appeared to be clinging to life. Originally from Washington State, Brittany grew up in a small town and a big family. Brittany is one of nine children. Her father ran a small upholstery business.

This was not a family that had a ton of money. But Brittany and her siblings had ambition and a willingness to work hard. Most of her brothers and sisters are college educated, because engineers in the family, there's a management consultant and a physician. That's the background she grew up in. A star on her high school soccer team, Brittany appeared destined to follow her older siblings example.

She was a tremendous athlete that was recruited across the United States of America to play college soccer. She eventually signed with Stony Brook University on Long Island. She got a scholarship to Stony Brook. She went across the country to play soccer there. But she left Stony Brook suddenly in 2003. She was accused of stealing from her teammates, from people that she went to school with, from her current roommate. No charges were filed, but the allegations had caused Britney dearly.

She got thrown out of school. She lost her soccer scholarship. Devastated Britney drifted to Washington, D.C. Settling near two of her sisters, she got a job at the posh Willard Intercontinental Hotel and tried to rebuild. at the posh Willard Intercontinental Hotel and tried to rebuild. She started off working at the front desk and quickly was promoted to managing VIP guests. She would make sure that everything was taken care of from these most important people.

It was a good job, but it wasn't what the former Sunkerstaur wanted to do with her life. She wanted to be a personal trainer that was a long time goal that she'd had for herself. She was a real, uh, fanatic, uh, physical fitness. She was saying everything, you know, she, she'd do weight change, do boot camp. She did spin classes. Hoping to make connections in DC's competitive market for fitness trainers.

In 2010, Brittany took a job at the Georgetown location of Lulu Lemon, an upscale retailer specializing in yoga and workout clothing. She's friendly, she's engaging, she's athletic. She's kind of a person that Lulu customers would want to talk to, but she was, you know, in some ways a perfect saleswoman for Lulu Lemon. Then in February of 2011, she transferred to the Lululemon store in Bethesda.

But it was only supposed to be a temporary job. She was looking for a new job, and it was a fitness center around the corner from the Lululemon store, and she was applying to be a fitness trainer. Brittany was about to realize her dream. However, she was hardly the only ambitious young clerk at the Bethesda store.

... ... ... ... Jaina Murray was born in Kansas, but grew up in Texas. Jane Murray was in many ways just like Brittany Norwood. Came from a good family as respected family. Her dad's special operations guy in Vietnam.

I did two tours there. He and other of Jane's family members talk about a household in which there was a very strong sense of right versus wrong. Like Brittany, Jane had been a star athlete growing up. In high school, a track coach saw, you know, at a dance and sort of recruited her as a discus thrower. And she was such a good athlete that she set, you know, a local record for throwing the discus.

Studying for her business degree at George Washington University, Jaina spent a year studying in Spain and did a semester at C. Directly out of college, she accepted a job, in fact with Halliburton, and it allowed her to travel and see the world. After three successful years as a marketing rep for Halliburton, Jaina went back to school to pursue an MBA at Johns Hopkins. She wrote her MBA Master's thesis on the Lululemon Corporate Model. It's a really interesting company, very successful, interesting place.

They promote a lot of goals set in the morning. They're employees. You're supposed to set your personal goals, your health goals, your professional goals. To research her thesis hands on, Jaina also took a job at Lulu Lemon. They like to hire really ambitious people. You know, Jaina was sort of the perfect Lulu Lemon employee. Like Brittany, the job was only supposed to be temporary, a stepping stone to bigger and better things. The only reason she was there,

it was a research project for her, for her master's degree. But after she finished her thesis, Jaina decided to stay through the end of the semester. She became fascinated with Lulu Limon and how smart their retelling techniques were. She'd gotten friendly with the other girls, and then she decided just to see it through because she liked the girls.

The women Jaina worked with liked her too. You ask them about Jaina Murray. Every person says the same thing. Jaina was my best friend. Everybody that we have a spoke with about Jaina just my best friend. Everybody that we have a spoke with about Jaina just describes us as full of life and loving life and just adventurous.

Jaina and Brittany weren't close, however. It wasn't that they didn't get along. They just hadn't had the time. They were only co-workers for three and a half weeks. Brittany had only recently got there. They were co-workers. for three and a half weeks. Brittany had only recently got there. They were co-workers. They did not socialize together. They wasn't a, they just were co-workers

who'd probably had a handful of shifts that had overlapped. Their last shift together would be on Friday night, March 11, 2011. Her and Jane were closing in the store around nine o'clock. They cleaned up. It was pretty unaventful. But as the two women cleaned and locked up, their uneventful evening took a tragic turn. On Saturday morning, March 12, minutes after they'd received a 911 call,

reporting what appeared to be a break-in at Lululemon, Athletica's Bethesda location. Montgomery County Police received a second frantic call. Exploring the crime scene while waiting for the police to arrive, the store manager and a bystander had discovered two victims at the back of the store. One person seemed dead and the other person is breathing. The dead woman was Jane Amurie. She was found in a back hallway face down with a substantial amount of blood around her, a pooling of blood on the floor from her injuries, as well as a great deal of blood spatter on the adjacent walls.

The other victim was 28-year-old Brittany Norwood. Someone's tighter up. She's still breathing. Okay. I need an ambulance right away. Within minutes, the police were on the scene. Inside Lulu Lemon, they found what looked to be a robbery. There's a series of registers, cash registers, and there's safes underneath them. And they're open and there's receipts. Just scattered throughout the floor. But there's no money.

There were plenty of signs of a struggle, however. There was clothing and shelving that it was strewn about the store. Definitely looks like there was a big fight in the middle of the store. And when the police got to Jane's body in the back of the store, they found yet more evidence of a brutal struggle.

On top of Jane's body, there's a red toolbox. And there's tools scattered throughout. There's a hammer, there's some wrenches. And they're just, they're covering the blood. Nearby, the police found Brittany Norwood bound and bloody on the bathroom floor. Her hands are tied up, her legs are tied up, and she's kind of moaning. She was alive, but appeared to be badly injured.

She's not responding, she's not opening her eyes. She had an injury to her forehead, and there was some blood on her face. She had some cuts to her chest and to her stomach area. She looks like she was beaten, and we were just like, wow, this is crazy. Coming up, Brittany gives a harrowing account of her ordeal. He had me by the hair. Told me to slip me through.

But will the witnesses next door confirm her story? Witnesses reported that they heard a voice saying, oh, God, police in the affluent Washington, D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Maryland faced a shocking crime. Lululemon, an exclusive exclusive yoga shop had been robbed. Worse, one of the store's clerks, 30-year-old Jaina Murray, had been stabbed, beaten, and bludgeoned to death. Jaina's body was virtually mutilated.

There were a number of head wounds, facial injuries, neck and back wounds, that really would shake even the most experienced homicide investigators. It was a terrible, horrific and extremely gruesome crime. The other clerk, 28-year-old Brittany Norwood had also been attacked and apparently left for dead. She had razor blade cuts to her breasts, to her stomach, to her legs. Norwood had also been attacked and apparently left for dead.

She had razor blade cuts to her breasts, to her stomach, to her legs. But Brittany wasn't dead. Unlike Jaina, she had survived the ordeal. And that night while the crime scene technicians processed the store. The investigators spoke to Brittany at the hospital. She was awake, she was alert, and she was able to talk. She told me that she and Jaina had closed the store that she and Jaina left the store around 9.45 pm. But then a few minutes later,

Brittany said they had both returned. They got to the metro and actually realized they didn't have real life. According to Brittany, she had called Jaina, who had the keys to the store. She was like, well, I know what I said, and I couldn't. It might have popped up anyway, so it's fine. So I just met her back in the front of the store.

Brittany said she and Jaina searched for her wallet, but couldn't find it. According to Brittany, Jaina just says, well, here's my metro card. Just take it and, you know, we can look for the wallet tomorrow. But then, as the two women left the employee break room at the back of the store, they suddenly realized they hadn't locked the front door behind them. When we locked back out onto the floor, they, and there was, she was a little ahead of me,

and there was someone who they cared for. Then, according to Brittany, a second assailant grabbed her from behind. We had me by the hair. I told him to send me the word, and he slid me through it. And I kept yelling and fighting. According to Brittany, Jane's attacker dragged her into the back of the store. And, you know, her screen's kind of, uh, die down. Meanwhile, the suspect with Brittany was asking where the money is, where's the money kept.

Brittany said she had done as ordered. She says her suspect walks her to get the keys to the safe. But once he had the money, Britney said her attacker had dragged her into the back too. Then he forced her into the bathroom and began slashing at her with a knife. He cuts her pants open,

and then he proceeds to sexually assault her. I like it because it was my fault. Because I lost my hair. I forgot my wallet. It's right here. Britney said that she had blacked out at some point during the attack. She says she comes to when she's being carried out of the store in the ambulance. But while Britney had been left alive,

she couldn't give the police a description of her attackers. All she knew was that there were two men. They were masked, all dressed in black, one slightly taller than the other. Back at the crime scene, the investigators found clues that appeared to confirm at least part of Britney's story. We have two sets of shoe prints and blood leading to the area where the keys were kept.

One was smaller and appeared to be Britney's, but the other was much larger, a size 14 to be exact. We're assuming that this is the shoe of one of the unknown male assailants. But strangely, those two were the only sets of footprints the detectives found. There's no signs of the second suspect. Nor did the footprints appear to leave the store.

Maybe the guy took the shoes off and left in his socks. Things got even more puzzling when the investigators followed up with the manager who had walked in on the bloody scene that morning. The manager told the police she had received a phone call from Jaina at around closing time the night before, a call that concerned Brittany. There's this allegation that Brittany had been stealing the night of the homicide. They had a policy of checking bags on a nightly basis for all the employees.

The night of the murder, Jane actually found some items in Britney's purse that she believed were stolen because Britney didn't have any receipts. And the General Manager of the store said, well, we'll deal with it tomorrow. And that's how that conversation ended. Did the allegations of shoplifting have something to do with the murder?

The timing certainly seemed suspicious, but the police weren't quite ready to consider Brittany a suspect just yet. We've got to remember, we've got a woman who was covered in blood, razor blade cuts, clothes shredded, tied on the floor. And that Saturday afternoon, when the police pulled surveillance camera footage from the surrounding stores, they found more evidence that appeared to confirm Britney's account of two black clad intruders. It was a recording of the alley behind Lulu Lemon, taken a little after 11 o'clock on the

night of the murder. There are two guys that were walking really fast in the back of the Apple store, which is just adjacent to the back hallway of the Blue Lemon Store. Both men were dressed in black. Was it a glimpse of Janus Killers? That first 24 hours or 48 hours of the investigation, we were looking for those two guys.

Hoping to find a witness who could identify the two men, the detectives questioned employees at the Apple store next door to Lululemon. As luck would have it, most of the staff had worked late the night before, prepping for the release of Apple's latest gadget. There was a lot to do as far as all the sales they had for the iPad 2 and they're also having meetings to get sort of geared up for the next day. None of the employees could recall seeing either of the men in black I pad two and they're also having meetings to get sort of geared up for the next day. None of the employees could recall seeing either of the men in black, but one of the managers

had heard something strange at around 10 o'clock. She hears noises on the other side of the wall. She hears this sort of heaving sound as if maybe heavy furniture had been moving, then she hears screaming. The manager had even mentioned the noise to several other employees. There were witnesses who reported having heard a voice saying, oh God, please help me, please help me.

And then another voice in response saying, just talk to me. Unfortunately, none of the employees called 911. A murder was going down next door. Nobody called the police. It was just, it was just sad. But they did give police a vital piece of information about the shouting they'd heard from next door. It was two women.

No male voices. Coupled with what the police already knew about the allegations of shoplifting. The fact that employees of the ample store had heard two women arguing before the murder, cast considerable doubt on Brittany's story about masked intruders. It became apparent that Brittany was not

telling the truth about what happened. Even worse for Brittany, the police were about to make a shocking discovery about the bloody shoe prints left at the scene. It started on Sunday afternoon, as the police continued to process the crime scene. My sergeant finds these shoes in the mid-rack, which is a table that they used to fall the clothes home. And it's a large pair of like size 14 male shoes.

And something about the tread pattern appeared to be awfully familiar. We'll look at the large footprints that we have in blood and they match that pair of shoes. Neko, what is this? Did the killer like leave his shoes behind? On Monday morning, the police followed up with the manager of Lulu Lemon, who explained how the shoes got into the store.

The store people says, no, no, no, those shoes are always here. We have them here for fitting. You slip into the sneakers, they ham your pants so you look great when you go to work out in the local gym. But could someone also slip into them to stage a crime scene? Those shoes are not from somebody who walked in here and attacked these girls. These are shoes that were here from the very beginning that have now been cleaned off and put back into the shelf.

Coming up, the police find another crucial clue. There's traces of blood that are found on the steering wheel and use it to bait a trap for Brittany. Do you know what kind of car she has? Um... I don't... I saw it one. Hey, listener, it is me, Jason Bateman. I want to tell you that we've struck podcast gold in our new episode with David Letterman available four weeks early on one Drupal

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I know I have. You can listen to these episodes four weeks early and add free on Wundry Plus, find Wundry Plus in the Wundry app or on Apple podcasts. on the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. By the morning of March 15, 2011, it had been 72 hours since Bethesda, Maryland, had been shocked by a brutal murder in an upscale boutique. It just shocked everybody because no one would have expected something like that to happen there.

Even more frightening, as far as the community knew, store clerk Jaina Murray had been killed during a robbery, and her fellow clerk, Brittany Norwood, was lucky to be alive. She exhibits all the signs that you would think I've victim would accept. What the community didn't know was that over the last 72 hours, the police had uncovered a series of clues suggesting that Brittany may not be an innocent victim. First, the store manager said that Jaina had called her shortly before the murder and accused Brittany of shoplifting.

That night, Jaina checked Brittany's purse and found some items that she believed to be stolen from the store. Then, employees at the Apple Store next door reported hearing two women arguing the night of the murder. Britney is saying the attack was too men. Finally, the police had traced the bloody footprints at the scene to a pair of sneakers they had found in the store.

Shoes they believe Britney had used to stage the fake crime scene. The only person that would want all to the scene is a person that's in the scene is which was brilliant. The bloody footprints at the crime scene. The only person that would want alter the scene is a person that's in the scene is which was Britain. The bloody footprints at the crime scene weren't all the police believe Brittany faked either. Following up with the doctors who had treated Brittany in the ER, cast doubt on her own bloody injuries. They were like small lacerations or scratches. And the sexual assault, Brittany reported, it never happened according to the doctors.

We actually looked at the report, and there was no evidence of sexual assault. Brittany's injuries may have been superficial, possibly even self-inflicted, but Janus were not. When the police received her autopsy report that morning, the gruesome details were enough to rattle even the most jaded investigator. This wasn't just one stab wound that did it, one gunshot that did it. It wasn't any of those

things. It was more than 300 separate wounds on her upper body, her hands, her face, her chest, her back, really her entire upper body was covered in wounds. Most appeared to have been inflicted by the tools that police had found scattered around Jaina's body. Every implement that was used to assault Jaina came from the store. And that included the weapon used for the fatal blow, a deep stab wound to the back of her head.

In the back, there's a sink, and there's like a kitchen, and that's what we found in life. For the investigators, the fact that all the weapons used in the attack came from within the store, also argued against Brittany's robbery scenario. We got two guys that go in the store to rob the store. Yet they bring no weapons. But what about the two men in the alley?

Clad in black, Justice Britney described. A security camera had recorded them hurrying down the alley behind the store shortly after the murder occurred. The exterior camera to the Apple store showed two people, almost at precisely the time that would have fit with her story. Unfortunately for Brittany, by Tuesday, the police canvas of the shopping center

had identified the two men. We finally found those people. There were two dishwashers that worked in a store up the street had absolutely nothing to do with it. With the mystery men ruled out, that left the police with only one option. Brittany killed Jane. That's what the police believed, but could they prove it?

So far, all the investigators really had where the managers claimed that Jane had had caught Brittany's shoplifting and a lot of circumstantial evidence. Basically, you're gonna be arresting because you think, wow, the story just doesn't make sense. That's a big decision. However, there was still one thread

that could tie Britney to the crime. During their canvas of the shopping center, the police had found Jane's car, parked several blocks from the store. There's traces of blood that are found on the steering wheel, on the gear shift. Clearly, the car had been driven after the murder. But why?

From what the police could determine, Britney's story about the two clerks returning to the store to look for her missing wallet had been true. She lured her back into the killer, which some people think. Or she was bringing her back and she was going to say to her, look, please don't tell. But the fact that Jaina had driven back to the store left Britney in a bit of a dilemma.

Jaina's car was outside the store in an area that you weren't allowed to park in. So Brittany had to go move the car so that people wouldn't get suspicious. She needed the drive up, but that's the avenue. Find a parking lot, park the car, and then return back.

That was the theory. To prove it, the detectives asked Britney to come in and submit fingerprints and a DNA sample on Wednesday, March 16th. We told it we need to eliminate her from any prints that we could have found in the store. The police didn't specifically mention the blood they found in Janus' car, although the car did come up indirectly. He's just super casual talking to her,

and he sort of buried this question late in the interview. Did Janus say where she was going or did she got off work? So I was in New York. OK, she was in Ireland town. Did she drive? Do you know what kind of car she has? Um, she drives. She'll get a car she has.

I don't decide one. But she'd never driven it, or even ridden in it, according to Britney. She leaves the police station on Wednesday, having told us I've never been in a car. That's not what the preliminary DNA results said, however. When the DNA came back, it just totally contradicted what Brittany said.

It was Brittany's blood in Janus Cohn. The authorities spent the next day preparing an arrest warrant. And Brittany apparently spent that Thursday thinking over the interview. Because that afternoon, she contacted the investigators and asked to come in and speak to them again. I think it became apparent to her that we knew

that there was something in the car that she may have been in the car. Britney knew forensically we're gonna tire to that car. So when she came in on Friday, March 18th, she offered the police an explanation. Yes, she did move Janus Carr, but according to Brittany, her attackers forced her to do it. Prior to him sexually assaulting me and September,

they made me move her car. Yeah. Brittany didn't know that the medical evidence had already cast considerable doubt on reclaims of a sexual assault. But that fact wasn't the main reason the police didn't believe her new story. According to Britney, the attackers had sent her out to move the car alone.

They said if I were to pass to anyone and open my mouth, I can consider myself dead. And that one of them would be watching the entire time. Why would you have come back to the store when all of this is happening? Why would you have put yourself back into that situation? So they just, they just were jumping on the story that she had told and really trying

to pick it apart. Why didn't you just keep on going and not go back, you know? Because I was just from that. She says they told me that if I didn't come back and if I told to anybody they knew where I lived and they'd come and kill me. But that night, Brittany wouldn't be going home. At the end of her interview,

the investigators placed Brittany under arrest for the murder of Jaina Murray and transferred her to the Montgomery County jail. I was very confident that we had the right person. When she left the store, she could have gone and never come back. Coming up, the prosecutors suffer a serious setback. That's just classic hearsay. And the defense takes a desperate turn. He goes, she's just lost it. On October 26, 2011, Brittany Norwood's murder trial began at the Montgomery County District Court in Rockville, Maryland. The 29-year-old was accused of killing co-worker Jaina Murray

seven months earlier. It was just a complete shot. How this vicious murder could have been done by this girl. But make no mistake, she had done it, according to the prosecutor's opening statement. The prosecution, in this case, characterized Brittany Norwood as a liar, as a cold-blooded killer. And the prosecutors claimed they had plenty of proof, too.

Everything from witness accounts of two women arguing inside the Lululemon store on the night of the murder, to evidence that Brittany had faked a robbery and assault to throw the police off her trail. It really is something you might see on TV. It's almost as if she watched just enough CSI to think she could get away with it. But there was one angle of the story

that the jury wouldn't hear. Brittany, who'd already lost a soccer scholarship over allegations of stealing, had been accused of it yet again by Jaina, barely an hour before she had been murdered. The judge ruled that it was inadmissible because of he deemed it was hearsay. The only proof prosecutors had was what Jaina allegedly said

during a phone call to the store manager on the night of the murder. They wanted to bring that witness up to the stand and say this is what Jaina told me. That's just classic hearsay. In its open, the defense seized on the fact that the prosecutors couldn't present a motive for the crime. And the way Brittany's attorney did it shocked the courtroom.

And he goes, my client did it? There was this kind of very silent gasp, if you will, throughout the entire courtroom. Nobody was expecting this. This attorney just coming out and flat out saying, yes, my client did it, was pretty shocking for everybody. The defense conceded that Brittany was responsible for Jaina's death.

But according to the defense, there was nothing premeditated about the killing. The two women had argued and things had simply gotten out of hand. And he goes, she just lost it. She just lost it. And he must have repeated that five or six times. And that became their thing. The defense has characterized her as someone who simply lost it. No planning, no deliberation, no prethought to commit a murder.

It was an important distinction according to the defense. First degree murder under Marilyn Law is the specific intent to kill. It's with premeditation, deliberation, some thought, forming in the mind of the person who was charged and committing the act. Therefore, the defense argued, Whitney was guilty of second degree murder, which was also an important distinction.

First degree murder. The penalty that she faced was maximum sentence sentence was life without the possibility of parole. A second degree murder, like, you know, Brittany's sentence could have been as short as his 15 years. Whatever sentence Brittany ultimately served would depend on whether or not the prosecutors could prove premeditation. And that might be tricky since they couldn't introduce the supposed shoplifting. That was a victory for the defense. They really weren't going to be able to put a motive on. Instead, when the prosecution started presenting its case that afternoon, they focused on just

how Jaina had died. It was so brutal to say that she just lost it, but then to look at the pictures, this is more than just losing it. To walk jurors through those pictures, prosecutors first turned to a blood spatter expert with the Metropolitan DC Police Department. He testified that the first blow had apparently been struck with a heavy metal bar, part of a merchandise rack found within the store.

Simply comparing the wounds and the available weapons, was able to find one that matched some of Jane's head wounds. And there was also blood spatter on the side of this weapon. Then, based on the blood trail, Brittany had apparently pursued Jane into the store's narrow back hallway. He was able to show in this back narrow hallway, blood droplets starting at, you know, five or six feet and going down the wall. And the way the blood spatters traveled down the wall was very revealing, according to the expert. Beat into a crouching position and then all the way to the ground and then on the ground.

Next, the prosecutors called the medical examiner to the stand to impress to jurors just how brutal the attack had been. Her testimony was that there were more than 330 injuries. The whole thing was really tough to look at. You're seeing these photos of this woman's hands that are covered in bruises. The back of her head, you know, is just totally mangled. The type of violence involved in this attack,

the number of cut wounds, the number and the intensity and the seriousness of these injuries, it's really just unbelievable. But as shocking as the extent of Jane's injuries wants, that wasn't the worst part of the medical examiner's testimony. I said to the medical examiner, how many of these 331 blows did she live through? And the answer was every one of them. Jane was alive until the very end, and that was crucial. It showed that Brittany could have stopped the attack.

But Brittany hadn't stopped. According to the medical examiner's estimate, she bludgeoned Jane for over 15 minutes. This was way beyond overkill. Then, as Jane lay bruised and bleeding on the floor, Brittany found a knife in the break room and finally managed to strike a fatal blow. The final blow was a knife went to the back of her head

that went into her brain. Something in your mind has got to snap. I mean, she had to have lost her mind for that brief amount of time, because I don't see any other justification for how this could have happened. Would the gruesome details of her attack on Jaina prove equally damaging to Britney's defense?

On November 2, 2011, it was her attorney's turn to present their case. People really wanted to hear from Britney. I think everybody was wondering why, why, why. The crowd in the courtroom would be disappointed. It would have been almost impossible for Miss Norwood to explain herself in a way that was believable. The fact that the prosecutors had her statements

that they could play at trial, it limited the defense because of all the lies that Brittany had said. The defense didn't call Brittany to the stand. In fact, the defense didn't call any witnesses at all. Instead, Brittany's attorney closed his case by arguing that the prosecution had failed to make its case for first degree murder. The defense argued it, ladies and gentlemen,

there's no motive here for this. How can it be premeditated? Finally, the defense argued that the gruesome details that the prosecution presented only strengthened the case for second degree murder. The very facts that the state wanted to use can also be argued to show there was no plan. This was a crime of passion.

This was explosive. This is someone who just snapped. Coming up, the jury reaches its decision. What's at stake is how much time Britney's gonna spend in prison. Will the lack of motive make the difference? We never got a motive for unsettling fish. On November 2, 2011, the jury filed back into a raw film Maryland courtroom for the reading of the verdict in the murder trial of Brittany Norwood. The 29-year-old was charged with the brutal march killing of Jaina Murray, a fellow clerk at

an upscale Bethesda clothing store. It was a huge story because it went from this heinous crime these girls were attacked, oh no, who could have done this to wait one of them? Killed the other. At trial, the defense admitted that Brittany had killed Jane. But her attorneys argued that she should be found guilty of second-degree murder, not the first-degree charge that the prosecutors sought. What's at stake is how much time Brittany is going to spend in prison. Whether she served life or as little as 15 years, depended on whether or not the prosecutors

could prove premeditation. A tricky prospect since the judge had ruled testimony about Brittany's alleged shoplifting off limits. We were afraid that the jury needed to know the motive. And I guess we were frustrated because I think in our mind's eye, these were arguments we wanted to make. And it was a toss-up whether the jury would find

for first-degree murder without hearing those arguments. The fact that we never got a motive for why this happened, you know, why this horrible thing happened, that was unsettling, officially. But in the end, despite their reservations over motive, jurors found Brittany Norwood guilty of first-degree murder. Her face kind of dropped and her body dropped a little bit,

but it was very subtle. Like she was disappointed, yet she expected it. Uh, and it was sad for to think how young she was, and that she's gonna spend the rest of her life in jail. At her sentencing hearing on January 27th, 2012, Brittany finally spoke in court, begging for mercy, and a chance at parole. Brittany gets up to ask the judge

for some sort of leniency in the sentence. And she even makes the point of saying, this isn't for me, this is for my mom and dad, this is for my family to have some hope. The judge appeared unmoved, sentencing Brittany to life without parole. He made the point that so many people I sentenced, you know, I think he said 99% of them come here

with no family, no support. And you know, I think he said 99% of them come here with no family, no support. And, you know, you have the support and you had this support. But that hadn't stopped her from ending another young woman's promising life. He talked about that in the context of it being all the more inexcusable. The crime wasn't just inexcusable. It was almost inexplicable, in light of what Janea Murray had died for. Why would you kill somebody over a pair of $80 yoga pants? Britney is currently being held at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women.

Britney filed to appeal her sentence but lost in April 2015. The court affirmed her conviction of first degree murder and sentence of life without parole. You