FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Long Island Woman Convicted of Murder for Hire of Husband;
Gunman Also Found Guilty of Murder
Wife Provided Boyfriend with Cash and Gun to Give Killer after Two Previous
Failed Attempts at Husband’s Life; Tried to Cash Out Life Insurance Policy Days Later
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a woman has been convicted of hiring a hitman to murder her husband in 2013 after two failed attempts at the victim’s life. The gunman was also convicted of murder.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “These defendants engaged in a calculated and cold-hearted plot to kill an innocent man. Their heinous scheme was exposed and a jury has now held them responsible for these reprehensible crimes.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendants as Alisha Noel-Murray, 29, of West Babylon, NY, and Kirk Portious, 29, of Brownsville, Brooklyn. Noel-Murray was convicted on June 8, 2017 of first-degree murder following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog and Portious was convicted today by a separate jury of first-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Each defendant faces a life sentence without the possibility of parole when they’re sentenced on June 29, 2017.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on February 24, 2013, at about 12:58 p.m., Omar Murray, 37, was shot dead inside his home, located at 204 Lott Avenue in Brownsville. The investigation led police to Damien Lovell, Noel-Murray’s boyfriend, who told investigators that his girlfriend had asked him to find someone to kill her husband after her attempt to poison him had failed. The first person shot at the victim on February 6, 2013, but missed, according to testimony.
Lovell then hired Portious and provided him with a $500 down payment and the gun, which he received from Noel-Murray, the evidence showed. The gunman was promised a total of $3,500. Noel-Murray had taken out nearly $900,000 in life insurance on her husband before the murder and attempted to cash out the policies within days of his death.
Lovell had previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for a promised sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Emily Dean of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Assistant Distant Attorney Ebonie Legrand, of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Timothy Gough, Homicide Bureau Chief.
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