UPDATE: Judge Rules Norwood Made Voluntary Statements To Police

Update, Sept. 3: After a day-long hearing Friday, a judge ruled that most statements Brittany Norwood made to police prior to her March 18 arrest were voluntary and she was not in police custody as she spoke.

Those findings were key as to whether Norwood should have been read her Miranda rights prior to giving certain contested statements, as her defense team sought to prove.

Norwood is charged with the March murder of her co-worker Jayna Murray at Bethesda’s Lululemon shop. Police have said she lied to cover up the crime and elaborately staged the crime scene to make it appear as though the two women had been attacked by two masked men.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Robert Greenberg ruled that all but a portion of the fifth interview with police on the day of her arrest will be allowable at trial.

Describing Norwood’s behavior during one of the interviews, Greenberg said Norwood sat casually and spoke calmly, as though “she thought she had everyone duped.”

 “These statements were voluntary because she really believed herself to be in control of the situation,” Greenberg said. “…This is a young woman that’s totally facile, totally with it, knew what she was doing,” Greenberg said.

Norwood's defense is likely to enter a plea of not criminally responsible, Maryland’s version of the insanity defense. During the hearing Friday, the defense sought to bar five interviews she had with police from her October trial. The interviews took place from March 12, the day after she was discovered bound on the floor of a restroom inside Lululemon, to March 18, the day of her arrest. The statements included:

• Two interviews with Montgomery County police detective Deana Mackie at Suburban Hospital March 12, during which Norwood describes the alleged attack.
• An interview with police detectives James Drewry and Dimitry Ruvin, the lead investigators on the case, at Norwood’s Florida Avenue apartment March 14.
• An interview with detectives at Montgomery County Police headquarters March 16, requested by police.
• An interview with detectives at Montgomery County Police headquarters March 18 – an interview which Norwood’s family requested on her behalf, according to detectives who testified.

At the hearing, prosecutors sought to prove that Norwood was treated as a victim rather than a suspect throughout the large majority of her interviews with police. The information she offered was voluntary,  they said, and she wasn’t in police custody – therefore, they said, police weren’t required to advise Norwood of her rights to remain silent and retain an attorney.

Deana Mackie, a Montgomery County police detective, took the stand to describe her interviews with Norwood at Suburban Hospital March 12.  The tale Norwood told Mackie and other detectives was later described by prosecutors as a series of elaborate lies. Norwood told her Murray had been struck in the face by an assailant at Lululemon as the alleged attack began, just after the two had returned to the shop to retrieve Norwood’s wallet.

When Norwood said she tried to escape out the front door, another assailant, who had been crouched behind a clothing rack, attacked Norwood, she told police.

Norwood told Mackie that Murray had been dragged to the back of the shop by the first assailant, and that she could hear Murray being beaten. Norwood said she went to the back of the store, and found Murray lying unresponsive, face down in blood. “She said there was ‘so much blood…so much blood,” Mackie said.

The assailants, she said, forced her to give them cash and a key for the back door to disable the alarm system. Then one of the assailants cut her, sexually assaulted her, and tied her with zip ties, Norwood told Mackie.

When asked by Mackie whether she had seen anything suspicious earlier in the day, Norwood said a man who was browsing in the shop asked her if she was the only one working that evening.

Mackie emphasized that throughout the interview, she was seeking to get more information from Norwood to help investigators develop suspects and process the crime scene. “I took what she told me as what happened,” Mackie testified. “I had no reason to think she was anything other than a victim.”

In a closing argument, prosecutor Bonnie Ayers said Mackie had been speaking to Norwood not as a suspect, but “as if she’s talking to someone she wants to take care of.”

Norwood, Ayers said, used her intelligence to play on Mackie’s sympathies. “[Norwood] gets emotional. Her voice cracks…she said, ‘I couldn’t help Jayna.’ ‘I feel like this is all my fault.’ I think it reflects the intelligence of someone who is creating an elaborate lie and doing a good job.”

Police had developed another suspect early on in the investigation, someone described to them as an aggressive panhandler in downtown Bethesda, and weren’t initially focusing on Norwood as a suspect, police and prosecutors said.

The defense, however, sought to point out that Norwood was a suspect early on. They questioned several detectives as to why they didn’t become suspicious of her story sooner.

Douglas Wood, an attorney for Norwood, questioned Mackie as to whether she sought to verify Norwood’s claims of sexual assault with a nurse who examined Norwood. There was no evidence to support either woman was sexually assaulted, prosecutors have said.

As Ruvin took the stand to describe the March 14 interview at Norwood’s home, he said Norwood told him and Drewry the alleged assailant had known her name and address, probably after finding bills in her purse.

When Wood asked him whether he thought there was anything strange about her story, Ruvin said, “I thought it was odd the suspect would leave her to go get her purse.”

By March 16, Norwood’s story, however, was becoming suspect, Drewry said as he took the stand. Police asked Norwood to come to headquarters that day to give hair samples and "elimination" fingerprints, but the request was a ruse to try and elicit more information from her, Drewry said. Norwood had denied ever being in Murray’s car, but forensic evidence linked her to the vehicle.

By that day, “Yeah, in my mind, she’s a suspect,” Drewry told Wood.

Shoeprints at the scene also didn’t match Norwood’s tale, evidence that was “blowing holes” in Norwood’s story, Drewry said.

On the 18th, Drewry said, Norwood came in to headquarters after Norwood’s family requested another interview, telling police Norwood had been “withholding information because she was terrified.” There, she told police that the suspects had forced her to move Murray’s car, and police confronted her and her family with the evidence mounting against her.  She was later arrested.

That day, Wood said, detectives were “trying to elicit as many facts as possible to further incriminate herself.” “From the 16th on, for sure, she should have been mirandized,” Wood said. “It’s clear on the 16th and the 18th that she’s being interrogated.”

During a portion of the March 18 interview, Norwood should have been advised of her rights to remain silent and retain an attorney, Greenberg ruled. During that section of the interview, Drewry was attempting to extract a confession and it wasn’t clear Norwood could leave after asking to go home, according to Greenberg.

However, he ruled that during the rest of the interviews, Norwood not only voluntarily offered information, but would “go on to offer detail.”

“This is a woman of striking intelligence and lucidity,” Greenberg said. “And at certain times…she could tug on your heartstrings. She said, ‘This was my fault…if we never went back for my wallet, this never would have happened.’ She demonstrated to me a facility with words that was …almost shocking to me.”

The suggestion that police should have developed Norwood as a suspect early on was “impractical” in an evolving police investigation, Greenberg ruled.

Norwood is scheduled to face an eight-day jury trial on first-degree murder charges Oct. 24.

Update, 6:12p.m.: After a day-long hearing Friday, a judge ruled that most statements Brittany Norwood made to police prior to her March 18 arrest were voluntary and she was not in police custody as she spoke.

Those findings were key as to whether Norwood should have been read her Miranda rights prior to giving certain contested statements, as her defense team sought to prove.

Norwood's defense sought to bar five interviews she had with police from March 12, the day after she was discovered bound on the floor of a restroom inside Lululemon, to March 18, the day of her arrest.

Montgomery County Circuit Court judge Robert Greenberg ruled that all but a portion of the fifth interview with police on the day of her arrest will be allowable at trial. A portion of the March 18 interview happened before Norwood was advised of her rights to remain silent and retain an attorney, Greenberg ruled.

This post will be updated.

Original Post, 6a.m.: In a motions hearing set for Friday, the defense team for Brittany Norwood is expected to ask a judge to bar certain statements Norwood made to police from her October trial.

Norwood, 29, is with first-degree murder in the death of her co-worker Jayna Murray at Bethesda's Lululemon shop in March. Prosecutors have said Norwood lied to police and elaborately staged the crime scene to make it appear as though the two women were attacked.

Norwood's defense, which is expected to enter a plea of not criminally responsible -- Maryland's version of the insanity defense -- was this week a request to postpone her Oct. 24 trial.

Friday, they are expected to ask a judge to suppress five interviews Norwood had with police at Suburban Hospital and at police headquarters, according to WTOP. The defense maintains Norwood wasn't read her Miranda rights or afforded an attorney before giving the statements to police, WTOP reported.

Stay tuned to Patch for updates from this morning's hearing.