“Nothing will ever return to normal,” he said. “Nothing will ever be the same.”
Hugh Murray’s wife, Kate, told Greenberg: “When we do sleep, we as often as not have nightmares about Jayna’s murder.” Of the Murray family, once vibrant and resolutely upbeat, she said: “There is no hope. There is no joy. There is no true laughter.”
Then Murray’s other brother, Dirk Murray, invoked the three Furies of Greek mythology, Dante’s nine circles of hell, and the Old Testament story of Cain and Abel, telling the judge, “I’ve explored all to see what kind of hell awaits Ms. Norwood.”
His wife, April, came next, then Jayna Murray’s longtime boyfriend, Fraser Bocell. “No longer can I look forward to our children, praying they have Jayna’s smile and her indomitable spirit,” Bocell said. One of Murray’s closest friends, Marisa Connaughton, told the judge, “A dark cloud has been cast over my heart.”
At Norwood’s trial late last year, there was no dispute over whether she had killed Murray. Defense attorneys sought a verdict of second-degree murder, arguing that the crime was committed in the heat of passion and without premeditation. McCarthy, who prosecuted the case, contended that the killing was intentional and deliberate, and the jury agreed, convicting Norwood of first-degree murder. She was star soccer player in high school and college and had no criminal record before the killing.
On Friday, Norwood showed emotion only after the Murray family was done speaking. She softly cried as one of her brothers, Sandre Norwood, stood at the lectern. “There’s another side to Brittany that was not brought out at the trial,” he said.
“Please, your honor: At least give her some hope,” he said, asking for parole eligibility. “If you leave her with hope, you in turn leave our family with hope.”
The sentencing brought to a close one of the most bizarre and high-profile murder cases in Montgomery in years.
To try to conceal her crime, Norwood tracked size-14 sneakers through Murray’s blood to make it appear as if a large man had been there. Then she tied herself up and waited overnight. She was found the next morning, moaning in the restroom. For days, she lied to the police and to her family, weaving the story of the ski-masked attackers. But her account crumbled under the weight of mounting forensic evidence.
Greenberg, who has worked in the Montgomery justice system for decades, said he could recall only two cases “that approach the brutality of this case.”
The savagery of the killing, he said, is “nothing short of astounding to me.”
Staff writer Dana Hedgpeth contributed to this report.
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