Brandon Chicklis

Julia Enright Found Guilty of Second-Degree Murder in 2018 Killing

She was accused of luring 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis to a treehouse near her Ashburnham home to kill him

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Julia Enright was found guilty of second-degree murder Monday in the 2018 killing of a man in Massachusetts.

The verdict was announced around 11 a.m. Monday in Worcester Superior Court after roughly two days of deliberations. The case had gone to the jury on Nov. 23 following 10 days of testimony.

Enright is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 18.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. said she will be given a life sentence with the possibility of parole. He also said his office hasn't ruled out charging an accomplice in this case.

Enright, 24, was accused of luring 20-year-old Brandon Chicklis to a treehouse near her Ashburnham home to kill him. Prosecutors said it was a gruesome gift for her boyfriend, with whom she shared dark passions.

She admitted to stabbing Chicklis several times, but said it was in self-defense after Chicklis sexually assaulted her.

An Ashburnham dominatrix accused of murder testified in her defense during her trial Friday.

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."

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 Rindge, New Hampshire. It was found a few weeks later.

Investigators 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 told NBC10 Boston that Enright and Chicklis once dated and remained friends even after breaking up. Prosecutors said the two had been classmates at Montachusett Regional Vocational High School in Fitchburg. 

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