NY wife 'hired hitman after plot to poison husband failed'

 Posted on August 18, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  453 words  |  Larita Shotwell

A wife is accused in a sordid scheme to kill her husband by asking her lover to hire a hitman after she allegedly tried to poison him but failed.

Alicia Noel-Murray, 28, faces life in prison for the murder of her husband Omar Murray, 37, in a Brooklyn trial that began on Monday. Alleged hitman Kirk Portious is also on trial, with a separate jury.

Prosecutors said in opening arguments that Noel-Murray, who had a 10-month-old son with Murray when he was killed in February 2013, had grown tired of her husband and was having financial difficulties, the New York Daily News reported.

She decided that murder was the solution to both problems, according to prosecutor Emily Dean.

Omar Murray, 37, was shot to death on February 24, 2013. His wife Alicia Noel-Murray, 28, is on trial for his murder and faces life in prison if convicted. 

Omar Murray, 37, was shot to death on February 24, 2013. His wife Alicia Noel-Murray, 28, is on trial for his murder and faces life in prison if convicted. 

First, Noel-Murray tried to poison her iron-worker husband in October of 2012, but he recovered after a trip to the hospital, according to Dean.

Then the woman turned to her lover, Dameon Lovell, 32, urging him on to find a hitman for hire to kill her husband, the prosecutor said.

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After one attempted hit fell through when the gunman missed Murray, said Dean, the wife and her lover hired Kirk Portious to carry out the murder for $3,500.

The boyfriend Lovell turned state's witness and is serving 15 years as part of a plea deal.

Murray had gone out to the store and was returning home when he was shot with his own gun, police said. His wife, who works for a home health care company, allegedly told 911 operators that there was an active shooter, keeping paramedics from entering the house.

Murray had gone out to the store and was returning the home (pictured) he shared with his wife when he was shot with his own gun, police said

Murray had gone out to the store and was returning the home (pictured) he shared with his wife when he was shot with his own gun, police said

Noel-Murray had taken out nearly $900,000 in live insurance on her husband before the murder, and tried to cash out the bulk of the policies withing two days of the slay, Dean said.

If convicted, Noel-Murray faces life in prison without parole, and Portious faces up to 25 years. 

Attorneys for both Noel-Murray and Portious claim that their clients were set up by the boyfriend Lovell, who masterminded the murder himself to eliminate a romantic rival.

'He's lied to everyone from the beginning. He wanted this new lifestyle and Omar was the one in the way,' Noel-Murray's attorney Wynton Sharpe said of Lovell.

'The only crime my client did was being unfaithful.' 

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