Norwood's Lawyers May Seek To Use Insanity Defense

Lawyers for Brittany Norwood, the woman at Bethesda’s Lululemon store in March, may use an insanity defense at her October trial, according to an AP report and a report in The Gazette.

The reports cited statements made in Montgomery County Circuit Court during a Wednesday hearing.

Norwood’s attorneys “did not name who their expert would be, but they suggested that their defense may be that Norwood is too mentally ill to be held responsible for the killing,” according to the AP report.

Norwood’s defense lawyers said at a hearing last month that competency issues could at trial. Wednesday, a lawyer for Norwood said the defense had “not yet found a mental health expert to testify in what could become a ‘not criminally responsible’ plea,” the Gazette reported.

In Maryland, a plea of not criminally responsible indicates the defense will seek to prove a defendant’s mental disorder prevented them from understanding the criminality of their actions and applying their actions to the law.

Police and prosecutors have said that Norwood saying she and her co-worker Jayna Murray had been attacked by two masked men. They said Norwood elaborately staged the crime scene to make it appear as though an attack had taken place. Norwood is charged with murder and prosecutors have stated they will

The AP also reported that Norwood’s lawyers will seek to suppress five statements Norwood made to investigators after Murray’s murder. According to a Washington Post report, Circuit Judge Robert A. Greenberg has requested a written explanation from Norwood’s defense about why the statements should be suppressed at trial.

According to the Washington Post, prosecutors have already identified several of the expert witnesses they plan to call – “William Vosburgh, an expert in blood-spatter evidence; David McGill, a shoe print expert; Mary Ann Horton, a fingerprint expert; and Erin Farr, a DNA expert,” the Post reported.

Norwood is slated for an Oct. 24 trial. Her next court date is Sept. 2.