Meet, Marry, Murder - Season 1, Episode 46 - Noel Murray - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[dramatic music] NARRATOR: 25-year-old Alisha Noel-Murray calling the police to the Brooklyn home
she shares with her husband, Omar. Alisha plays the part of the just-widowed wife
in fear of her own life. Omar's family don't buy it. She's just a greedy, materialistic
person who saw a come-up. She took it. NARRATOR: So which is it? Is Alisha a woman whose husband's
life has been violently taken from her, or is she the killer? As detectives work the case, one fact soon emerges--
she'd taken out a large insurance cover on her husband. Why does she need that much money on him?
What's she going to do? [dramatic music] [soft piano] [foreboding music] NARRATOR: Brooklyn.
Home to a close-knit community for New York's Caribbean immigrants, and where Omar Murray met
his future bride Alisha Noel. Before he met Alisha, he was previously married. After his divorce, he moved in with us again,
and Alisha was our next-door neighbor, so we knew her when we moved in, and they became, you know,
acquainted at that point. NARRATOR: Omar's younger brother, Alex, played a key role in the couple getting together.
I was friends with her nephew-- it's funny-- before we even moved to the neighborhood,
and that was the ironic part of it. So I knew someone in her family before we even moved there,
but I wasn't really acquainted with her until her and my brother got involved. It's a small world.
NARRATOR: What would Alisha discover about the new man in her life? Omar Murray was a Jamaican-born ironworker.
He was known as just a fun-loving guy. He was deeply religious, very devoted to his church.
My brother was a hard-working man, a caring man, loving towards family and friends, dependable.
He supported everyone, and he was basically, like, the light of everyone's-- everyone's day.
NARRATOR: The eldest of a large brood of siblings and half siblings, Omar was the man everyone looked up to.
ALEX SCOTCHMAN: The relationship I had with my brother was really cool, simply because, like, he was,
like, a father figure to me. He's the oldest of five, so I was around him a lot.
He definitely inspired me to, you know, better myself at all times because he was, you know,
such a great person. Hardworking, dedicated, so I was around him a lot. And my father wasn't really active in my life,
so he took that role. NARRATOR: Alisha was not such an open book. Omar's family pieced together what they could about the woman
he had fallen for. Investigating her background, too, criminologist Brian Frederick.
BRIAN FREDERICK: Noel-Murray was a Caribbean-American home-health care aide. Omar's mother, Eunice, describes Noel-Murray as quiet,
a little bossy, and a little controlling. CAROLYN CANVILLE: Alisha Noel was a home-health aide.
She was a Caribbean American. Her mother had been a nurse. She was from Guyana. Her father was from Grenada.
Before they got together, I didn't really know much of her until they got together because she never really came around.
I didn't really see her outside. NARRATOR: Despite their shared Caribbean heritage,
Alisha and Omar had grown up in very different environments. I can imagine that for Omar, Jamaica
might have been a place where everybody knows your name. New York is different. It's very easy to get lost in the city.
You're very much one of millions of people. NARRATOR: As a native New Yorker, Alisha Noel was more worldly wise
than the devout Omar Murray, but that didn't put him off. The two of them meet, and Omar is just head over heels, madly
in love with her. When they first got together, I would say it was, like, you know, the grass is greener and everything's brighter,
and it was like the honeymoon phase, you know? It was too good to be true. NARRATOR: It was 2010, and too good to be true or not,
the couple decided to settle down. It wasn't immediately welcomed by everybody. There may be trouble ahead.
Omar and Alisha were married quickly after a whirlwind romance. This was Omar's second marriage, and
the first marriage had failed. His mother believed that he would do anything to make this marriage work because he was
still feeling responsible for the failure of the first marriage. It's funny because we were all skeptical at one point.
But, you know, he was happy. He seemed happy, she was happy. So we were happy for them, you know?
NARRATOR: Omar wanted to make his new bride happy, and he knew exactly how. Spend, spend, spend.
To my knowledge, Alisha was very materialistic. Alisha had very expensive taste.
She liked expensive handbags, clothing. ALEX SCOTCHMAN: She was very flashy and very
into high fashion. Louis Vuitton, all these foreign cars, and all these things. She was like that when we met her, in a way.
Like, when I got to know her, she was very high fashion, and, you know, she wanted the best things.
But, you know, that kind of worked out because my brother, he liked the nice things, you know?
So-- and he made good money, so it wasn't an issue for him, so I guess that worked out into her favor.
He's so madly in love, just wants to please her. NARRATOR: The property ladder beckoned.
CAROLYN CANVILLE: The couple moves to the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, get a nice house there.
NARRATOR: Brownsville is known for poverty and high crime rates, but it was an area where they could
afford to make a down payment on a three-story, four-bedroom house. It was on Lott Avenue.
It's not real certain whether or not they could actually afford the mortgage, but it was something
that they both wanted. NARRATOR: But living in a nice house in a tough neighborhood
meant that home security was a top priority. The way that my brother's house was set up,
there's a storm gate, which means no one can get in unless you're, like, a welder or you have, like,
some heavy machinery, like a saw something. My brother had security cameras. He's had them since they moved there.
The security cameras were always on, and I knew that because my brother showed me the security cameras.
NARRATOR: Settled and secure in their new home, Omar and Alisha were ready for the next step.
Pretty soon, they have their baby daughter. She is just the light of Omar's life.
He's just head over heels in love with his little baby daughter. NARRATOR: Omar's day-to-day existence
revolved around his young family, his church in nearby Crown Heights, and his job.
My brother, he usually went to work and came home. NARRATOR: He wasn't the type of man to go drinking with buddies
after work or to pursue hobbies at the expense of time with his family. He was a homebody, content just to be with his family,
which is what made the events of February, 24, 2013, all the more shocking. Sunday, February 24, 2013, was damp and overcast.
At around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, an emergency services dispatcher in Brooklyn, New York,
took this call. Omar Murray had been out to the grocery store. As he returned, arms laden with paper sacks,
it seemed he was ambushed on his doorstep. 12:56 PM, Omar arrives back at the house.
12:58 PM, Omar approaches the door, opens the door, and boom. He's shot three times in the chest,
right there in his own doorway. [gunshots] Ballistics will later reveal that Omar was shot as he
approached his house, and the shots came from inside the house out towards him. ALEX SCOTCHMAN: When he came in, they--
the shooter was on the stairs, and they tussled a little bit. But the shooter had the high ground.
My brother fell back, and that's when he shot him. Later, Alisha would tell the court
that Omar stumbled inside the house, fell to the floor, and called for his mother.
NARRATOR: In a second-floor bedroom, nursing a 10-month-old daughter, Alisha heard the gunshots.
After the shooting, Alisha call the police talking about she heard some popping sounds--
I don't know how it's popping sounds if the whole gun going off in the house-- and she was in the room with the baby,
on the phone with the police. She calls 911, but she tells them that there may be
an active shooter in the house. By Alisha saying that there was an active shooter on the premises,
it's a different type response. NARRATOR: Former homicide detective Rod Demery believes Alisha's words to the 911 dispatcher caused
a catastrophic delay in her husband getting the medical help that he so desperately needed.
Whereas if she would have called and said that he had been shot and on the floor,
they would have responded medically. When she changes that scenario to it being an active shooter,
they respond tactically. The first thing they're going to do is make sure that the premises are safe,
and they're going in looking for an active shooter with that in mind. It's going to delay the paramedics' arrival
because, obviously, we want to make sure that the scene is safe before paramedics
are dispatched. NARRATOR: Alisha was too scared to leave the locked bedroom while she waited with her daughter.
She, you know, didn't even, like, go try to tend to her husband. She was a nurse, and I feel like, you know,
if your husband is wounded, you're going to try to keep him alive as much as you can.
Police clear the house to make sure there is no active shooter. NARRATOR: All the while this was happening,
Omar was lying badly wounded in the entrance of their Lott Avenue townhouse. He was alone.
He actually bled out. He was alive after he got shot for a little while. Eventually paramedics got to Omar
and attempted to save him and rush him to the hospital, but it was too late. The losing of my brother was--
was, like, the craziest thing I ever experienced in my life. NARRATOR: Detectives investigating
the murder suspected a home invasion gone wrong. This was Brownsville, after all, the area of New York with one
of the highest rates of gun crime. I'm sure the neighbors would have probably, you know--
what's up, who's been shot now, you know? I don't think anybody would have really, um,
thought twice about him being killed by some random assailant. NARRATOR: Investigators had what they expected from Alisha.
ROD DEMERY: Alisha was interviewed at length by police. She said that she didn't know anything
and had no idea who would do that to her husband. NARRATOR: Cops could find nothing in Omar's private life
that would have given anyone the motive to kill him. They hoped for an early breakthrough
when they realized the family home was rigged for CCTV. As investigators are checking the house,
they noticed there are three security cameras. They found something peculiar, and that
was all the surveillance cameras had been turned off. NARRATOR: Odd enough, but other anomalies began to appear.
The security cameras was right between the storm gate and the house door, so it had to be from the inside
that someone took it out because you can't get into the storm gate unless you have a key.
That really was vital to the case, also, because everyone knows that those cameras only
got taken out from the inside. NARRATOR: But these weren't the only cameras keeping a watchful eye on the Noel-Murray home.
As darkness fell that evening on Lott Avenue, police were scrutinizing surveillance
footage from across the street. 12:43 PM, Omar leaves for the grocery store, then we see a black truck pulling up across the street.
NARRATOR: A tall man in dark clothing opens the truck door. He gets out of his truck, crosses the street,
and enters the building. Omar is gone less than 15 minutes. 12:56 PM, we see Omar arrive back at the house.
12:58 PM, Omar walks to the front door to get back home, and he's shot-- [gunshots]
--three times in the chest and falls to the ground. NARRATOR: And the police officers
knew exactly who the mystery man entering Omar's house was-- 25-year-old Kirk Portious, a local man with a history
of violent crime. Shortly after Alisha's 911 call, we see Kirk Portious leaving the building, get into his vehicle,
and heading down the street. NARRATOR: When police picked up Kirk Portious, they quickly linked him to two other accomplices--
Dameon Lovell and getaway driver Dion Jack. The very next day, New York City detectives
arrested three men in connection with the murder. NARRATOR: At this stage, none of the men were talking,
but it seemed cops had their man-- or men, None were thought to be known to Alisha Noel-Murray,
and there was no obvious motive for her to kill him. To cover all bases, police began digging
into the lives of Omar and Alisha, and what they found raised alarm bells. They discovered that there was some serious problems
in the three-year-old marriage. Very soon into the marriage, the couple was struggling financially.
Alisha's not keeping up with their car payments. She's even stolen $100,000 from her own mother.
The couple is falling behind on their house payments on their half-million dollar home,
and now the house is up for foreclosure. NARRATOR: It's a scenario forensic psychologist
Dr. Judy Ho has come across all too often in her career. Financial stress is difficult for any couple to manage,
but in this case, Alisha was actually making their financial stress worse because she was going
on these spending sprees when they clearly didn't have the money. NARRATOR: Cops also discovered another curious detail in
the couple's financial history. Not long after their marriage, Alisha and Omar took out two separate insurance policies on Omar.
Omar's life insurance policies totaled over $650,000. And before long, a third life insurance policy.
Altogether these three policies are worth almost a million dollars. Let's not forget Omar was an ironworker, right?
We can imagine that people with, you know, really successful jobs might have large life insurance policies or a big family
to support should they die. NARRATOR: But detectives knew this was an unusually large sum to take out an insurance
on a man with his earnings. Even as she grieved, Alisha wanted to get her hands on the insurance money.
Meanwhile, two days after the murder, Alisha is already trying to collect on those life
insurance policies. Some people might think, unbelievable, you know, who does this, right?
But this is her thought process-- she feels entitled to that money. The fact that she waited two days
was probably very difficult for her to do. She probably wanted to call them that night.
NARRATOR: Insurers refused at this stage to payout. Too much was still unknown about Omar Murray's death.
But weeks later, Alisha found another way of cashing in on her husband's death. We have an account in Jamaica.
She went there, took all the money out, and gave a small portion to his family in Jamaica,
to his father's side of the family. She barely gave him anything. She lied to them and told them that there was a certain amount
in there, but there was much more, and she gave them a small amount. So she basically had a greed problem.
NARRATOR: Alisha's actions simply confirmed what Omar's family and NYPD cops increasingly
believed about the young widow. Instead of feeling devastation that her marriage
had been brutally cut short, Alisha was seeing dollar signs. Was she in league with whoever had killed her husband?
ALEX SCOTCHMAN: After the death of my brother, she showed no emotion. I believe if any human being loses their loved one,
let alone their spouse, you're going to feel something. You're going to, you know, exert some type of emotion,
and she showed nothing of that. NARRATOR: Even the forthcoming funeral of her husband
and her daughter's father didn't move Alisha to make an effort. March 8, 2013, funeral services
are held for Omar Murray at the Full Gospel Assembly of God church. Alisha didn't help the family at all with the planning
of the service. I wrote her on Facebook, and I said, you know, I'm only reaching out to you because I would like for us
to have a headstone for him, and she was in control of that, because at the moment,
she was still his wife. So we had no say-so in that. And although I was going through all the emotions
and frustrations, I still took it upon myself to try to, like, at least get a headstone for my brother,
and she was-- she didn't even respond to me. She read the message, did not respond.
NARRATOR: On the day itself, Alisha's behavior told its own story. She didn't cry at the funeral, she didn't cry at the burial.
There in the front pew is Alisha, sitting there, chewing gum. JUDY HO: I think Alisha clearly had no emotions
at her husband's funeral, but I think that does show you that there was no connection.
It was like dealing with a robot or something. And, you know, my family, we were all grieving,
and she was sitting there. She didn't come over, she didn't try to, like, you know,
grieve with us. Like, we both lost someone important to us that we loved, and it was crazy to me
that she sat there, just OK with everything. Sometimes people who are very connected to their loved ones
still don't cry at funerals, but for her, in her case, I believe that shows just how removed she was.
She was there for pretenses, she was there for propriety's sake, but she just wanted it to be over.
NARRATOR: Feeling more certain by the day that her daughter-in-law was hiding a terrible secret,
Omar's mother, Eunice, eventually shared her fears with close family. I guess it was mother's intuition,
she knew it was Alisha. She didn't even tell me it was Alisha at first because, you know, it-- it would have tore me apart
because I was actually close to Alisha at some point because I made her the godmother of my-- my--
my-- my daughter and also my brother. So it really-- it was crazy for me because I was stabbed in the back.
Like, I had severe trust issues after that. NARRATOR: Horrified at how cold she seemed, Omar's family confronted Alisha at the gravesite.
They're not buying this at all. They know she's done it, and they say to her, we know you killed him for greed, out
of greed and wanting his money. We know you're guilty. NARRATOR: She continued to deny knowing anything
about her husband's murder, but detectives were to make another intriguing discovery about the secret life
of Alisha Noel-Murray. She was definitely having an affair with Dameon, and they were involved in activities while my brother
was in the house at the time. [dramatic music] NARRATOR: The death of Omar Murray
didn't seem to have ruffled the feathers of his widow too much. Alisha Noel-Murray continued to live the high life
in a story which had a way to go, including how poison had been used to try to kill
Omar without him ever knowing. New York detectives, unconvinced of the role that Alisha may
or may not have played in her husband's death, decided to examine Noel-Murray's cell phone records,
and they were intrigued to find one number that came up again and again-- that of Dameon Lovell.
Around January of 2013, Alisha starts having an affair with a man by the name of Dameon Lovell.
He's a Rite-Aid drug store worker. NARRATOR: The affair had begun just a month or so before Omar's murder.
Alisha was pretty brazen about her relationship with Dameon, so much so that she and Dameon had
sex inside their family home. She was sleeping with him while my brother was on the upper floor with--
with my niece. So it's-- it was-- it was really crazy. We had no idea this was even going on at all.
You know, my brother's not the type to involve his family into these matters. So he wasn't really vocal about it.
Noel-Murray is also bringing men into the house and having sex with them, often while Omar is upstairs
looking after their daughter. Criminologist NARRATOR: Dr. Brian Frederick believes this fact alone
betrays troubling flaws in Alisha's personality, even evidence of a psychopath at work.
Not only does this sort of satisfy the-- you know, the psychopaths' characteristic of sexual promiscuity,
but it also demonstrates an utter lack of regard for the feelings of her husband and her daughter.
NARRATOR: It was disturbing, but it wasn't a crime. Cops would need more if they were
going to prove that Alisha had caused harm to come to her husband. When forensics completed their analysis of the crime scene,
there was a breakthrough. The investigation yielded some ballistic results, and that was that Omar was actually
shot by a gun he owned. CAROLYN CANVILLE: And they learn that Omar wasn't carrying the gun on him, so alarm bells are going off.
NARRATOR: How had Kirk Portious, strongly suspected of being a hitman, got his hands on Omar's gun?
Cops believe the answer lay in another piece of video surveillance, one that shows Alisha's lover Dameon
Lovell visiting her to collect the firearm in the days before the murder. The theory was that Dameon had passed
the weapon on to Kirk Portious, who had then carried out the killing. It was enough to bring charges against the men.
Kirk Portious and Dameon Lovell are both charged with first-degree murder, and they're held without
bond at Rikers Island jail. The getaway driver is also charged with hindering prosecution, and he's out on a $5,000 bond.
NARRATOR: Without more evidence or a confession, detectives felt that they didn't have enough to charge
Alisha Noel-Murray. She remained free and got on with her life. A year and a half goes by.
Alisha is still not talking and still not charged. There was just this one time--
I think it was at the Labor Day Parade, two years-- or, a year after my brother passed, she attended it.
And I seen her-- and this was while the case was still going on-- and I said, look at that.
Your husband just died, and you're out here partying. Like, she seemed like nothing--
nothing even happened. NARRATOR: Widowed at 25, Alisha Noel was keen to love again.
September 14, 18 months after her husband's death, Alisha marries again, a man by the name of Jose.
Jose Abreu. She will later admit that, during their marriage, she also got some life insurance policies.
One wonders-- if she hadn't been caught-- if she would have ended up murdering him as well.
ALICIA MURRAY: So what would it take to stop another of Alisha's men from mysteriously dying, only to see
her cash in on insurance? In the spring of 2016, as Dameon Lovell's trial date approached,
he started looking for a way to avoid his sentence being as bad as it could be. What ultimately happened is Dameon Lovell took a plea,
and he admitted to everything that happened. Dameon told detectives that he and Alisha had a relationship,
and they planned and plotted together to murder Omar. I believe she used Dameon in a way to, like,
blame him for everything, which is why I also believe he came forward-- what give him more of a reason to come forward to confess
that they planned this together, because she tried to throw him under the bus. NARRATOR: Dameon explained to detectives
how Alisha had first raised the idea of killing her husband. She talks about her debt problems, and just--
she's just desperate to-- to-- to get a handle on her debt, and she asks him, is there any way he can help her.
She explained to Dameon that she was the beneficiary on three of his life insurance policies,
and the only way to clear her debt was to kill him. NARRATOR: Alisha told Dameon that she needed
his help because he'd already made one failed attempt on Omar's life. Dameon told investigators that Alisha
had told him she tried to murder him before, but it didn't work. NARRATOR: And her method of trying to kill him?
Lacing his food with killer ingredients. In October of 2012, the couple gets into a fight.
Alisha claims that Omar has admitted to sleeping with a prostitute. We don't have any idea whether this is true or not,
but she claims that-- that he admits to it, and he-- and he says he's sorry. This, at this point, is when she will
make her first attempt to kill him by poisoning his dinner. Poison as a method for female killers
is actually quite a popular method. In general, what we know about female killers,
is that they tend not to like to get their hands too dirty, so they don't actually do any kind of close-up,
bloody types of killings. They tend to use poison or shooting at a father range so that they actually don't have to approach the victim
and have to even clean up the mess. NARRATOR: After the alleged row over the sex worker,
Omar ate his dinner and fell violently ill. I wasn't present that day that he was, you know, acting,
like, weird and sick. My mother and brother, I believe, were there. They-- she didn't want doctors to check his organs,
like, you know, if they want to donate because of the fact that she poisoned him.
NARRATOR: Omar survived the attack, and if he suspected his wife was the perpetrator,
he refused to admit it to family and friends. He wouldn't speak to me or, you know,
our family while-- because when-- he didn't want to worry us. He was the protector, you know?
So he didn't want anyone to ever think anything was going on. He always took everything upon himself.
NARRATOR: Alex Scotchman has no doubt that this was Alisha's first attempt to kill his brother,
but he finds the motive she gave for doing so hard to believe. She tried to poison him--
about the-- him sleeping with somebody, I honestly don't believe. He's not that type of person.
And I honestly feel she-- she said those things because she had some type of ulterior motive.
You know, like, she just wanted to use that as a cover-up or something to make it look like she was in the right,
to feel the way she did. NARRATOR: Perhaps she was spinning the story of Omar the cheating husband to persuade Dameon
Lovell to do her bidding. Noel-Murray alleged that Omar had had some affair with a prostitute.
This is an excuse. She used it as a pity play, to get people to feel sorry for her, to maybe provide some justification
for what she went on to do. I think Alisha really played up this idea that she was
somehow a victim that needed to be rescued, and getting a lover to commit the deed for her,
and to do away with her husband. And I think she kind of knew where she could go,
in terms of really delving into the parts of her that were attractive to a man, being able to paint
this picture of how a person can rescue her from her unhappiness. NARRATOR: And Dameon Lovell was happy to oblige.
Murder attempt number two, orchestrated by Alisha, begins. So as the affair continues, the plot begins to unfold.
A month before Omar died, Noel-Murray has entered into a relationship with another guy, and she sort of worked
her psychopathic genius on him. I mean, one month to sort of get him to kill her husband.
You know, that's, um-- that's pretty remarkable. February 6, 2013, the first hitman is hired.
ALEX SCOTCHMAN: I believe her lover at the time, Dameon, planned this. And they both knew, like, you know, to--
when they get this done, the life insurance policy would, you know, kick in. They would be well off or whatever the case may be.
She sent them to the car to try to-- I think it was fix a tire, like, a flat tire or something.
And when he went to the car, he realized that there was no flat tire, there was nothing wrong with the car, and then
he began to get shot at. [gunshot] NARRATOR: The gunman missed, and Omar managed to crawl
back inside his home to safety. Once again, if he suspected his wife, he kept his fears to himself.
If he'd had the slightest suspicion that his wife wanted to kill him, would Omar not have walked out?
I think a lot of times when people are on their second, third, fourth marriage, at some point they basically make
this decision that they don't want to have to repeat this process again. And no matter how modern our society gets,
there's still a lot of stigma about divorces, particularly if you have more than one.
And I think that, in many ways, Omar didn't want to have a second divorce. He really didn't want to be that person.
NARRATOR: He wanted to believe in his wife. Omar's mother other believed that he ignored any red flags
about Alisha and told himself that everything was going to be fine. NARRATOR: Perhaps his love of his baby girl
played a part, too. Leaving Alisha would mean leaving her. But whatever was in Omar's mind as he mulled
over his second brush with death, he could not have known how quickly the would-be assassins
would strike again. Omar is probably upset that, you know, twice she had tried to kill Omar.
Twice she had failed. You know the old saying three times is a charm? NARRATOR: In an interview room in New York's high security
Rikers Island prison in late spring 2016, Dameon Lovell was laying out for detectives
the history of his brief but bloody relationship with Alisha Noel-Murray. The life insurance policies, the affair.
He says that Alisha had asked him to help get her husband killed, that she had tried to poison him
but it failed. NARRATOR: After the botched shooting on February the 6th, Dameon reached out to a more reliable candidate--
gang member Kirk Portious. He gave Portious a $500 down payment to carry out a hit on Omar Murray.
Dameon also provided a gun, and that gun belonged to Omar. Lovell explained to Portious that if he completed the task,
he would be given an additional $3,000. NARRATOR: The source of the cash and the weapon
was none other than Omar's wife, Alisha. And it was she who set up her husband as a target
on the day of his death. On the 24th of February, 2013 is when Omar was murdered.
Alisha sent him to the grocery store to run other errands. NARRATOR: Kirk Portious and his getaway driver
were cruising Lott Avenue in Brownsville, awaiting their opportunity to get Omar alone.
ALEX SCOTCHMAN: She was giving her brother a ride to church, I believe. I think that was the first attempt
for them to get in the house, but he came back too fast. Then she sent him to the grocery store,
and the shooter called her, um, and told her that they didn't want to do it there because of, you know,
the-- the civilians around and too many witnesses. So then she told them to come back to the house
before he did, and she did let them in. 13 minutes later, Omar returns home. And two minutes after that, he walks to his house
and is shot three times in the chest. NARRATOR: This time, Lovell told cops, everything had gone to plan.
With a report of an active shooter in the house, Alisha kept first responders at bay while Omar bled
out in the foyer of his home. I think she so did not want to get her hands dirty
that she waited until the deed was completely done, and she could be very assured of it.
And I think at this point, there was no empathy for her husband, there was no love.
She had completely cut that part of her emotions off. And I think she was just waiting for the moment
when she could say that he was dead. I think she really saw this as a project that needed to be completed.
NARRATOR: All that was left was to cash in on the life insurance, and Alisha and Dameon
would be sitting pretty. After a frustrating three-year investigation, detectives were finally satisfied they had enough to go
on to charge Mrs. Noel-Murray. June of 2016, Alisha Noel-Murray is finally charged with first-degree murder in the killing of her husband.
First-degree murder is premeditated, or what we call malice aforethought. There was some planning involved before the murder actually
happened. The fact that she didn't pull the trigger doesn't excuse her from a first-degree murder charge.
She orchestrated the killing. NARRATOR: A year later, Alisha stood in the dock in the Supreme Court.
She denied all charges. Throughout the trial, Alisha maintained her innocence. She just insisted she had nothing
to do with her husband's death. ALEX SCOTCHMAN: It was-- it was very frustrating
because we all knew she did it. NARRATOR: By this time, hitman Kirk Portious had also turned
on the woman who hired him. She was trying to fight it hard, and the shooter and, um,
Dameon, I believe, confessed about the-- the plans that they conspired with each other.
Kurt Portious, who had an extensive violent history, also struck a deal for second-degree murder.
NARRATOR: The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office were confident the right woman was in the dock.
The prosecution had mountains of evidence. They had the testimony of Kirk Portious,
they had the testimony of Dameon Lovell, and they ballistics reports that Omar was murdered with his own gun.
The cameras, and the storm gate, and the shooter was in the house already while she was in the house.
ROD DEMERY: The prosecution could also prove that the couple was in financial straits
and that Alisha was willing to cash in on those life insurance policies. That life insurance policy, its sole purpose
was to fund her lifestyle after he was gone. ROD DEMERY: They also provided cell phone records that
show Lovell and Alisha were in constant contact with each other during the time of the murder.
NARRATOR: It was a compelling case. There was little Alisha Noel-Murray could convincingly say as she tried to protest her innocence.
June 18, 2017, a Brooklyn jury finds Alisha Noel-Murray guilty of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and a illegal
possession of a weapon. It took the jury all of three hours to return the verdict.
About a week later, Kirk Portious is also found guilty, the same charges by a different jury,
and two weeks later, they're both sentenced to life without parole. They're, at this time, 29 years old.
NARRATOR: Lovell's plea bargain meant he was ordered to serve 15 years in prison
for second-degree murder. Whilst listening to a judge pronounce her fate, Alisha remained as she had been throughout-- cold
and impassive. She was neither remorseful nor accepting that she had done it. After she was convicted, she maintained that.
She still, to this day, insists that she's not guilty, even though the evidence is pretty
overwhelming at this point. NARRATOR: The chilly demeanor of the woman that they had once
welcomed as a sister heaped extra pain on Omar's loving family. I would never imagine someone--
let alone, you know, your wife, the mother of your child, do something like that to you.
You have no care, you know? You have no remorse. It's just-- it's foul. NARRATOR: The family takes some comfort from the fact
that Alisha Noel-Murray will never be free to dupe and kill another man like Omar.
We were happy, yes, because something was done, and she's going to serve her time for what she's done.
But me, personally, at the same time, my brother is no longer here. Omar's mother said she believed that Alisha should
spend 900,000 years in prison, one for every dollar that she attempted to take from Omar.
I wanted an eye for an eye, you know? That was-- you know, at the beginning-- but, you know,
I had to humble myself and sit down and remember that, you know, if-- she's serving time.
She's suffering. So, you know, it's-- that became something that was justified in my eyes, you know?
Like, you know, he's no longer here, but she's not going to be living a good life
for the rest of her life. So it worked out. NARRATOR: The insurance policy was worth $900,000
to Alisha Noel-Murray. The gunman Kirk Portious had been promised $3,500. The price put on the life of Omar Murray.
[dramatic music]

Omar Murray worked hard to give his wife Alisha everything she wanted. But it wasn't enough, and Alisha decided he was worth more dead.

Though wedded couples vow to stay together until death do they part, this new true crime series looks at what happens when a groom or bride causes their beloved's death.

Brief Summary

Alisha Noel-Murray orchestrated her husband Omar's murder for insurance money, leading to her conviction for first-degree murder.

Key points

Alisha's Financial Troubles. Alisha's financial mismanagement raises suspicions about her motives following Omar's death.
The Mysterious Death of Omar Murray. Omar Murray is shot dead on his doorstep, leaving his wife Alisha as the prime suspect.
The Affair Uncovered. Alisha's affair with Dameon Lovell complicates the investigation into Omar's murder.
Alisha's Disturbing Behavior. Dr. Brian Frederick discusses Alisha's troubling personality traits, hinting at psychopathy.
The Breakthrough in the Case. Forensics reveal that Omar was shot with his own gun, leading to new suspects.
Alisha's Marriage After Omar. Alisha marries Jose 18 months after Omar's death, raising suspicions about her motives.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

She feels entitled to that money.

NARRATOR discussing Alisha's mindset after Omar's death

17:41WatchJun 8, 2022

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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