Grieving wife or black widow? Alishia Noel-Murray is on trial accused of hiring hit man to kill husband Omar Murray – she ‘seemed calm’ after the killing says cop
Brooklyn woman, Alishia Noel-Murray, accused of hiring hit man to kill husband to obtain insurance money
Iron worker Omar Murray, 37, a father-of-four, was brutally murdered in his home as he returned from the grocery store in February 2013
Three suspects, Dameon Lovell, Kirk Portious and Dion Jack immediately after the murder
Lovell, 33, and Portious, 29, have been charged with first-degree murder, 26-year-old Jack for hindering prosecution
Murray’s family and friends immediately pointed fingers at his 25-year-old bride
Noel-Murray, now 29, is accused of ordering the hit so she could cash in nearly $900,000 on three different life insurance policies
She allegedly planned the scheme with her lover, Lovell, Kirk Portious was the trigger man and Dion Jack drove the getaway car
Alishia sat in a front pew, calmly chewing gum, as about 70 well-wishers gathered inside the Crown Heights church for Omar’s funeral on March 9, 2013
Noel-Murray, a home health aide, maintains she’s innocent
Noel-Murray faces life without parole, Portius faces 25 years to life in prison
Grieving wife or black widow? Alishia Noel-Murray is on trial on charges that she hired a hit man to kill her husband
Moments after Kirk Portious allegedly shot Omar Murray inside the Lott Ave. home, the victim’s wife, Alishia Noel-Murray, called 911 while holding their 10-month-old son. She said the shooter was still in the Brownsville house.
“Police believed there was an active shooter in the house. She was in the apartment in the second-floor bedroom and was on the phone,” the first responding detective told jurors on Tuesday.
Did Omar Murray’s [photo] young wife have a hand in his death?
When the detective arrived, Noel-Murray’s father was outside the active scene and on the phone with her. The dad handed the phone to the officer.
“We were waiting for ESU (Emergency Service Unit) to respond before entering. She seemed normal and just waved at us from the window like she had no worry,” the detective said.
The detective remained on the phone with Noel-Murray until the emergency unit arrived at her bedroom door.
Alishia Noel and Omar Murray on their wedding day in 2009
Based on the conflicting accounts of the defense on the one hand and her husband’s family in alignment with the insurance companies, as well as, the Brooklyn prosecutor, the young widow whose husband was gunned down outside their Brownsville NY home in 2013 is either a grieving widow or a money-hungry killer angling for nearly $900,000 in life-insurance money.
Alishia Noel-Murray’s husband, Omar Murray, a father of four, was fatally shot in his Brownsville, NY home in February 2013, as he returned from a trip to the grocery store.
Jamaican-born Omar resided with his wife Alishia Noel-Murray in a Brooklyn row-house owned by Alishia’s mother.
The couple, married three years, had moved into the Brownsville home in 2012. Ironworker Omar was thirty-seven, his wife, a home health aide with Visiting Nurse Service of New York, was just twenty-five.
Angry mourners on both sides confront each other at Omar Murray’s graveside on March 9, 2013
Police arrested three suspects, Dameon Lovell, Kirk Portious and Dion Jack a day after the murder. Dameon Lovell, 29, who claimed Noel-Murray’s was his lover, implicated her as the mastermind of the murder-for-hire-plot.
Lovell and the suspected shooter, Kirk Portious, 25, were charged with first-degree murder. The accused getaway driver, Dion Jack, 22, who was accused of hindering prosecution, was charged with criminal facilitation.
Alishia Noel, who was romantically involved with Lovell allegedly, had arranged a hit on her husband to reap the benefits of three insurance policies the couple had taken out, totalling almost $900,000.
Till date all the life insurance companies have refused to pay out the benefits on the ground detectives with the New York City Police Department still considered her a murder-for-hire suspect.
In 2015, she sued the National Benefit insurance company and Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.for the money. The latter said it couldn’t pay her any portion of a $150,000 policy because “to date, [she] has not been ruled out as a suspect,” according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
Suspect Alishia Noel-Murray [right], at the funeral of her husband Omar Murray, in Brooklyn, NY, Saturday, March 9, 2013. She is now on trial for his murder
The responding officer told the court: “I escorted the defendant to the ambulance. She was holding the baby. After going through something like that, she wasn’t crying or under stress — she seemed calm, fine”.
Officers recovered a gun and a sex toy inside a Ziploc bag found in another bedroom, the detective said.
The mixed emotions boiled over during the funeral services for Omar held at the Full Gospel Assemble of God Church on March 8, 2013 where Alishia, who had not been charged with a crime, sat in the front pew chewing gum.
Omar’s uncle, in speaking to NYorkDailyNews said, “To see her [Alishia] sitting there with her crocodile tears makes me sick. We know she killed our Omar. Where is the justice?” In response the widow said: “I’m not hiding from no one….This is ridiculous.”
Police initially suspected a botched robbery at his Lott Ave. until his assassins implicated his wife as the mastermind of the hit.
Noel-Murray faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for allegedly plotting with her boyfriend Dameon Lovell to kill her husband for life insurance cash.
The shooter Portious is also on trial. A separate jury will deliberate his second-degree murder charges. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison.
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