By Nicholas Stix
I just found the September 13 story below, which is a follow-up to the August 17 story that suggested that the attorney of racist killer Brittany Norwood was preparing an insanity defense. That lawyer, Harry Trainor Jr., missed the court’s deadline for filing a motion for an insanity defense. No references over the past month to Norwood refer to Trainor as her attorney. One now reads of Douglas Wood as her defense attorney. She may have replaced Trainor, due to his having missed the deadline. I’ll have to make further inquiries on this matter.
Wood is playing a bottom-of-the-deck-style crazy card defense of “she did it, but she lost it,” in order to avoid a verdict of First-Degree Murder, and a sentence of “life without (read: until) parole.” He is hoping to get her a verdict of Second-Degree Murder, and a maximum sentence of 30 years, so that she might be released, and ready and fit and rarin’ to kill again in, in a mere 15 years—14 with time served—at the age of 43.
Look for the crazy-like-a-fox Norwood to appeal her sentence, based on “receiving inadequate counsel,” due to Trainor’s having missed the deadline. If she succeeds, she can go back to her original “crazy card” strategy, all at taxpayer’s expense.
Lululemon defendant may not plead insanity
Charged in slaying of her co-worker
By Meredith Somers
The Washington Times
September 13, 2011
An insanity plea appears to be off the table for the woman charged with killing a co-worker in a Lululemon yoga store in Bethesda.
Attorneys for Brittany Norwood failed to file a not-criminally-responsible plea by the Monday deadline set by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert A. Greenberg.
While the defense team could file the plea at a later date, a court official said Tuesday that Judge Greenberg would decide whether it would be allowed.
Calls to Miss Norwood’s attorneys Tuesday were not returned.
The inaction comes after weeks of back and forth between Miss Norwood’s lawyers and Montgomery County State’s Attorney John J. McCarthy, who says the defendant is a sane 29-year-old woman who was able to “play that game” as a victim in the gory death of Arlington resident Jayna Murray, 30.
Norwood attorney Harry Trainor Jr. hinted in late August at a possible insanity plea when he asked for a delay in trial proceedings so the defense team could have more time to investigate its client’s “major mental illness.”
Defense attorneys also said Miss Norwood could have sustained multiple concussions while playing college soccer.
The District resident is charged with first-degree murder in the March 11 killing of Murray, a manager at the upscale store on Bethesda Row.
Police discovered Murray’s body in a back room with Miss Norwood nearby and bound with zip ties.
Miss Norwood originally told investigators two masked men assaulted and robbed her and Murray after closing time.
However, her story failed to match evidence from the crime scene and elsewhere, and police arrested her several days later.
Judge Greenberg has denied several motions filed by the defense to suppress statements Miss Norwood made to police but agreed to suppress one she made a week after the killing.
Another motions hearing regarding the omission of evidence is scheduled for Oct. 14. The jury trial is set to begin Oct. 24.
[Previously, at WEJB/NSU:
“Bethesda Cops: Black Yoga Store Worker Murdered White Colleague, Made Up Story about Masked Rapist-Killers, in Order to Avoid Jail for Thefts”;
“Black Bethesda Yoga Store Worker Brittany Norwood is Charged with Killing Her White Colleague, Jayna Murray: Five Videos”;
“Trial Date Set For Britanny Norwood, in Non-Hate Crime Murder in Bethesda, Maryland, lululemon athletica Store”;
“Reader Who Claims to Have Known Jayna Murray, Whose Killer Smashed Her Skull in for 20 Minutes in lululemon athletica, Has Compassion for the Killer, but None for Those Who Would Judge Her”;
“In Web Posts and Emails, Friends of Brittany Norwood, the Racist Lululemon Killer of Jayna Murray, Paint Mutually Contradictory Portraits of Norwood”;
“In 2007, Ex-Boyfriend Charged That Lululemon Murderer Brittany Norwood was Stalking Him”;
“Already in August, Lululemon Killer Brittany Norwood’s Lawyer was Playing the ‘Crazy Card’”;
“New Details in Grisly Lululemon Murder: Brittany Norwood Used at Least 4 Different Weapons to Kill Jayna Murray; Prosecutor: Crime was ‘Pre-Meditated.’”;
Lululemon Trial of Brittany Norwood, for the Murder of Jayna Murray, Day 1: The Defense is Not Using the “Crazy Card,” but the “She Lost It Card”;
“The Desperate Struggle of Jayna Murray: Lululemon Murder Victim Tried to Escape, and was Alive Through Most of the Horrific Beating Brittany Norwood Inflicted on Her, Sustaining 322 Wounds (Washington Times)”;
“Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 2: A Bloody Video, in a Tear-Filled Courtroom”; and
“The Lululemon Murder Trial, Day 3: The Apple Employees Who Heard the Murder, but Did Nothing.”]
The alleged reporters who are covering this trial by twitter seem unaware that premeditation can be formed in one second.
ReplyDeleteDavid In TN
Thanks for covering the details of this case. It just sickens me to my core that this savage shit stain my claim insanity. I am also sickened by the Apple employees who did nothing.
ReplyDeleteIf it had been a black victim.......
Your allegation that we missed a filing deadline is absolutely false and defamatory. If you bothered to check facts you would know.
ReplyDeleteHarry Trainor
What you write about missing a filing deadline is absolutely false and defamatory. Next time check your facts.
ReplyDeleteHarry Trainor
This article is factually inaccurate. No effort has been made to check facts. A filing deadline was not missed. This guy Nicholas Stix writes with reckless disregard for the facts.
ReplyDeleteHarry Trainor
If it isn’t Harry Trainor, old Savings-and-Loan buddy, old pal!
ReplyDeleteWhen you sent me your love letter (by email, independent of these affectionate blog comments) today—on Thanksgiving Day!—I went hunting to find the instances of my having made “absolutely false and defamatory” statements about you. I found none.
Here’s what I found: I had quoted Washington Times reporter Meredith Somers (see below), who said, “Attorneys for Brittany Norwood failed to file a not-criminally-responsible plea by the Monday deadline set by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert A. Greenberg.”
Did Meredith Somers lie about you? If so, take it up with her. Did Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert A. Greenberg lie about you? If so, take it up with him. Scream at him that his statement was “absolutely false and defamatory,” and see where that gets you.
Are you denying that you were, at the time of the missed deadline, racist murderer Brittany Norwood’s lawyer? Multiple published news sources said that you were. In fact, at the time I saw references to your name alone, and the Washington Times said that you (i.e., as one of her lawyers) “failed to file” by the deadline.
In any event, if you were part of Norwood’s team, and that team missed a filing deadline, then I am absolutely justified, in naming you.
Only later did I see references to other attorneys (Douglas J. Wood and Christopher A. Griffiths) as representing Norwood, at which time I no longer saw any references to you as her defense attorney. Hmmm. I wonder why?
If you are mad because the filing deadline was the responsibility of one of your defense team colleagues, then by all means, name the fiend, but don’t take your rage at him out on me.
If I quote statements made about you, published by independent sources, not only do you have no legal grounds for charging me with having made “absolutely false and defamatory” statements about you, but your charge is, in itself, false and defamatory.
If Meredith Somers misrepresented you, in reporting that you failed to meet a filing deadline, then you may shriek at her—asking non-judges clearly isn’t your style—demand that she publish a correction, and see where that gets you.
But don’t try that crap with me. Already before you sent me your love letters, I was no fan of liars, er, lawyers.
And a Happy Thanksgiving to you, too, bub!
Sincerely,
Nicholas Stix
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/sep/13/lululemon-defendant-may-not-plead-insanity/
Lululemon defendant may not plead insanity
Charged in slaying of her co-worker
By Meredith Somers
The Washington Times
September 13, 2011
An insanity plea appears to be off the table for the woman charged with killing a co-worker in a Lululemon yoga store in Bethesda.
Attorneys for Brittany Norwood failed to file a not-criminally-responsible plea by the Monday deadline set by Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert A. Greenberg.
While the defense team could file the plea at a later date, a court official said Tuesday that Judge Greenberg would decide whether it would be allowed.
Calls to Miss Norwood’s attorneys Tuesday were not returned.
The inaction comes after weeks of back and forth between Miss Norwood’s lawyers and Montgomery County State’s Attorney John J. McCarthy, who says the defendant is a sane 29-year-old woman who was able to “play that game” as a victim in the gory death of Arlington resident Jayna Murray, 30….