Julia Enright, Ashburnham dominatrix, guilty of second-degree murder

Brad Petrishen, Telegram & Gazette

Mon, November 29, 2021 at 8:08 PM UTC

8 min read

WORCESTER — Julia Enright, the Ashburnham phlebotomist and dominatrix accused of murdering her ex-boyfriend in a treehouse near her home, has been found guilty of second-degree murder.

A Worcester Superior Court jury delivered its verdict Monday morning. Jurors received the case last Tuesday after 11 days of trial, and deliberated all day Wednesday before breaking for a long Thanksgiving weekend.

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Enright, 24, stood as the verdict was read. She stared straight ahead as she was handcuffed and removed from the courtroom.

Sentencing was set for Jan. 18. A second-degree murder conviction carries a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

A judge will set the number of years that must elapse before Enright is eligible for parole. That number must be greater than 15 years and less than 25 years; a parole board would then hold hearings to determine whether to release her.

Prosecutors had sought a first-degree murder conviction on two theories, arguing Enright planned out the June 23, 2018, stabbing of 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis of Westminster and carried it out with extreme cruelty.

Members of the Chicklis family consoled the man's mother outside the courtroom following the verdict. Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. said family members did not wish to comment Monday.

Julia Enright is escorted from the courtroom after her second-degree murder conviction Monday in Worcester Superior Court.

Early said while he always hopes for a first-degree conviction, he believes justice was served.

"You can't be unhappy with a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole," he said, thanking prosecutors, investigators and victim witness advocates for their work.

"They just did an incredible job with a very difficult set of circumstances, a very difficult set of facts," he said.

Members of Enright's family declined to comment outside the courtroom.

Chicklis’ largely skeletonized remains were found wrapped in a tarp and trash bags off an embankment of Route 119 in Rindge, New Hampshire, on July 10, 2018, 17 days after he disappeared.

A fascination with blood, death

Prosecutors alleged Enright, a dominatrix who evidence indicated had a fascination with blood and death, planned and executed the murder as a gift for her boyfriend. They implied that Chicklis may have been restrained when stabbed, noting tie-downs Enright bought weeks before the murder were never found.

Enright, who initially lied to Chicklis’ family and police about seeing him on June 23, 2018, admitted at trial that she killed him that day, but claimed during testimony that she was defending herself against a sexual assault.

In finding Enright guilty of second-degree murder, the jury did not adopt either side's narrative wholly.

If it found the murder premeditated, it would have been required to find in the first degree, according to the judge's jury instructions last week. If it found Enright had properly engaged in self-defense, it was obligated to find her not guilty.

Prosecutors had argued at trial that Enright was not a credible witness. They painted a portrait of a meticulous young woman fascinated with murder and sexual violence who’d journaled about an “insatiable” curiosity to kill and had drawn a sketch of a woman disemboweling a person who’d been restrained.

Enright texted her boyfriend about a “blood bath” minutes before she invited Chicklis to come to a treehouse near her home, evidence showed, stressing that he tell no one where he was going.

Enright told jurors she sent the text because she intended on having sex with Chicklis when she sent it and didn't want his girlfriend to know.

Within a week of the killing, Enright wrote a journal entry on her computer in which she described “the event” as a “gift” for the boyfriend.

The gift — which Enright said made her feel “turned on” — was the murder of Chicklis, prosecutors argued. They panned as “nonsense” testimony Enright gave that she was instead referring to a grave robbing she claimed to have committed.

The evidence in the case, they said, indicated Enright laid a tarp down in the treehouse, which had been outfitted with restraints.

Enright told Chicklis of a 'surprise'

She invited Chicklis there, killed him as a “surprise” for her boyfriend and, when he did not like it, enlisted his help in getting rid of the body, they said.

Prosecutors noted that evidence shows Enright bought rope, chain and items used to tie things down that were never found.

Julia Enright stands ahead of the verdict with her attorney Louis Badwey on Monday in Worcester Superior Court, where a jury found her guilty of second-degree murder.

They noted that medical examiners, though left with largely only bones, were able to spot cuts in chest cartilage — including one piercing cut — and found a T-shirt with Chicklis’ remains that had a dozen slit marks.

Enright’s lawyer argued the slits could have been widened by the alleged struggle. He derided a state expert as using “junk” science, and argued Enright may have struck a neck artery during a vague struggle she described on the stand.

The lawyer, Louis Badwey, said Enright, regarded by both the prosecution and defense as a meticulous planner, would have better mapped out the killing if murder had been her aim.

Evidence in the case indicated Enright and her boyfriend, John Lind, traveled to New Hampshire three times the day of the killing. One trip was described as a scouting mission.

Enright disposed of some of Chicklis’ personal belongings, including his phone, but left some jewelry on his body, including a necklace his girlfriend had given him.

Badwey argued Enright, who knew how to operate heavy machinery on her father’s 30-acre farm, would have disposed of the body in a prepared hole somewhere in the woods had the killing been premeditated.

He also criticized prosecutors for “piling on” evidence — for instance, evidence of a dominatrix business Enright operated — in what he cast as a cynical attempt to make her look like a “dirty girl” whose claims of sexual assault could not be believed.

Prosecutors at trial also introduced evidence of bone collections and cages in the woods where Enright would store decaying animals.

Enright said the hobby — which she shared with a friend — was mainly about creating art using the bones, commenting during testimony that jurors only got to see the “gross” part of the process.

Prosecutors argued her hobby was relevant to premeditation, suggesting the use of the tarp to wrap Chicklis’ body was the same way Enright wrapped the bodies of deer to speed decomposition.

Prosecutors argued information jurors heard about sexual “blood play” Enright and Lind engaged in was relevant given the manner in which Chicklis died.

Lind has not been charged. He was not called to testify at trial after a judge determined he had a valid Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Cellphone evidence admitted at trial indicated Lind’s phone traveled to New Hampshire three times after the killing, and Enright testified he helped her dump the body.

Early said Monday that prosecutors are looking into a possible "co-defendant" in the case, and will be reviewing the available evidence closely.

A former Boy Scout

Chicklis has been described by family members as a person who could be quiet with strangers, but loved to make friends and family laugh.

A longtime Boy Scout who achieved the rank of Life Scout, he worked as an HVAC technician, his mother testified, and had ideas of managing or owning his own company.

Chicklis’ mom, Trisha Edwards-Lamarche, told jurors she saw her son — the eldest of her three children — every week. He enjoyed hiking, camping and video games, she said.

His girlfriend, Jocelyn Williams, said they were together since 2014.

“He was very good to me — very kind,” she said, adding they enjoyed hiking and watching movies together.

As she testified, Williams noted she was wearing the matching necklace she’d gotten them for their third anniversary.

On one side was a compass, while on the other she had engraved the words, “Forever and always.”

The case’s lead investigator testified he uncovered no evidence that Chicklis was involved in the dominatrix aspect of Enright’s life.

Senior First Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Travers said in openings that Enright had put off multiple requests to hang out from Chicklis in the weeks before he died.

“She lured him into a trap,” he said.

In addition to Travers, the case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Terry J. McLaughlin and Jane A. Sullivan. Margaret Rwaramba, a victim witness advocate, is assisting family members.