On Thursday, the court heard the first full day of testimony in the murder trial of Brittany Norwood.
Yesterday, jurors heard during opening statements that the victim, Jayna Murray, sustained 322 injuries before dying inside the Lululemon store in Bethesda.
Witnesses for the prosecution on Thursday described encountering Brittany Norwood on the day she was found inside the blood-spattered store on March 12.
First on the stand Colin O'Brien, an off-duty Montgomery County police officer, who was working security at Suburban Hospital. He recalled meeting the ambulance that transported Norwood from the crime scene to the hospital that morning.
O'Brien told the court when Norwood arrived at the hospital, she had cuts to the chest, leg, arm, and a gash on her head. She also had a one to two inch cut running parallel to her thumb, according to the officer, and he told the court it caught his eye. When asked why, O'Brien said that kind of wound was a common when a knife blade slips out of the user's hand. He later said that he initially believed the wound to be a defensive one.
O'Brien removed evidence items from a bag for the court : blood stained socks and torn pants. The pants had been ripped in the crotch area, which prosecutors allege Norwood had done herself to give the appearance of a sexual assault.
O'Brien said when he first encountered Norwood, "I truly believed she was a victim when she came in."
A nurse at Suburban Hospital who treated Norwood on the first day also took the stand Thursday. She told the court that she noticed blood on Norwood's face but none on her hair. Norwood had told investigators that she had been bound and was hanging with her head down during the night of the attack. In such a position, the nurse said she would have expected blood to have accumulated in the woman's hair.
A female detective from Montgomery County also addressed the court. The detective interviewed Norwood twice on the first day, March 12, recording one of the conversations.
The detective testified that Norwood sobbed as she described an attack by two men, one short and one tall. According the detective, Norwood said she had tried to help Jayna Murray that night but could not, and that there was more blood on the scene than she had ever seen.
In opening arguments, the defense has already admitted that Brittany Norwood "lost it" when she killed Murray that night. But the prosecution is attempting to prove the murder was more than an act of passion. If the prosecution can prove premeditation, Norwood could be convicted of first degree murder, which could carry a sentence of life in prison without parole.
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