A Massachusetts jury tasked with deciding whether the 2018 killing of a man was self-defense or murder heard on Friday from the woman who did it.
Julia Enright is accused of luring Brandon Chicklis to a treehouse near her Ashburnham home to kill him. It was a gruesome gift, prosecutors allege, for her boyfriend, with whom she shared dark passions.
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Enright admits to stabbing Chicklis several times, but said it was self-defense after Chicklis sexually assaulted her. She's pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors pointed to her time as a professional dominatrix, as well as entries in her journal, where she wrote, "I have an insatiable curiosity to kill a person," and mentioned a fascination with death, using the skeletons of dead animals to build what she called "bone art."
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Prosecutors also brought up text messages to her boyfriend before the killing, asking, "Do you think we could add bubbles to a blood bath?"
Enright told the jury all of that was fantasy, an attempt to seem dark and foreboding. She said she did intend to have sex with Chicklis that day, but changed her mind, and he tried to force her.
In one journal entry, Enright wrote about her disappointment that her boyfriend didn't seem to like her "gift." Prosecutors said that gift was killing Chicklis, but she said the gift was a skeleton stolen from a crypt.
Enright and her boyfriend wrapped Chicklis' body in a tarp and duct tape, and dumped it in New Hampshire. It was found a few weeks later.
More on the Enright Murder Trial
Investigators have said Enright killed Chicklis by a treehouse near her home in Ashburnham, which police were able to trace from the victim's cell phone records. Chicklis' blood was found on the stairs to the treehouse, inside it and under it.
A family member of Chicklis has told NBC10 Boston that Enright and Chicklis once dated and that they remained friends after breaking up. Prosecutors said the two had been classmates at Montachusett Regional Vocational High School in Fitchburg.
Old friends of Enright who spoke to NBC10 Boston in 2019 described her as "eccentric."
