Source: EU.telegram.com
WORCESTER — Opening statements are expected Monday in the trial of Julia Enright, the Ashburnham dominatrix accused of stabbing a former classmate to death four years ago inside a treehouse that was outfitted with restraints.
The case is set to be called at 9 a.m. Monday in Worcester Superior Court after a jury was seated Thursday.
nright, 24, is accused of murdering 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis of Westminster, a former boyfriend, and leaving his body by the side of the highway in Rindge, New Hampshire, wrapped in trash bags.
Prosecutors allege Enright, a phlebotomist who had a side business as a dominatrix, lured Chicklis to a treehouse near her home and murdered him to satisfy a growing urge to kill.
The woman, 21 at the time, had a number of “deviant” interests, prosecutors allege, including sexual cutting and bloodplay. Eight days before Chicklis was last seen alive, Enright tried and failed to bribe Planned Parenthood to allow her to keep a fetus she aborted, they allege, so she could “play with” its bones.
Enright had a fascination with animal bones, prosecutors say, and routinely placed dead animals in bags or cages so she could use their bones to make art after they decomposed.
Authorities searching her home found vials of blood, a used condom collection, numerous knives and a “wet specimen,” prosecutors have said.
The prosecution and defense last month argued for hours about how much evidence jurors should be able to see. The defense argued much of it was irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial under the law, while prosecutors argued it was relevant to, among other topics, Enright’s mental capacity and motive.
In rulings this week, Superior Court Judge Daniel M. Wrenn issued line-by-line judgments on much of the proposed evidence.
Because some of the rulings referenced evidence contained on specific pages of documents that have not been publicly released, it is not possible to glean from the rulings all the specific evidence that was approved or excluded.
The rulings do make clear that statements Enright made about her love of bone art, certain dominatrix photos, photos of knives seized from her room, and a red-ink drawing of a dominatrix and a person tied up would be admissible.
Prosecutors have said the treehouse where the murder took place featured a system of restraints.
Also admissible are photos authorities took in Enright’s home of vials of blood, “specimens,” and a “dominatrix outfit and paraphernalia.” Photographs of “plastic tubs with animal carcasses in various states of rotting” will be allowed, too.
Excluded items include photos of “a bucket of organs” and “a number of carcasses with the organs showing, as well as a video of the same with the defendant licking blood from a body part and a photograph of someone holding an organ.”
Judge Wrenn also ruled that a number of writings and journal entries Enright made were not admissible. It was not clear from the ruling which specific statements were excluded.
Wrenn also issued rulings this week ordering some redactions to Enright’s police interrogation, including some questions or accusations from police he deemed unfairly prejudicial.
Wrenn said jurors can see Enright discussing topics that include certain sexual acts she performed with her boyfriend, she and her boyfriend cutting each other, sexual practices “including knife play” and her dominatrix business.
Enright’s lawyer, Louis M. Badwey, had argued those discussions should be excluded, saying there is no evidence Enright engaged in those types of activities with Chicklis.
Assistant District Attorney Terry J. McLaughlin had argued for their inclusion, noting that Chicklis had been stabbed as many as 13 times.
Enright’s boyfriend, John Lind, is expected to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if called to the stand at trial.
He has not been charged, and told Wrenn on the advice of a lawyer last month that he had a Fifth Amendment privilege given the anticipated nature of the prosecution’s questions.
Wrenn agreed, and found Lind’s privilege valid.
Aside from the “deviant” information at issue in the trial, prosecutors have several key pieces of evidence, including DNA matches for Chicklis’ blood in the treehouse and in Enright’s car.
Chicklis was remembered by family in his obituary as a kind young man who achieved the rank of Life Scout with Troop 41 in Fitchburg, where he was schooled.
A 2015 graduate of Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, he was working for a local HVAC company at the time of his death. He enjoyed camping, hiking and the outdoors.
