KEY WEST, Fla. (Court TV) — A Florida woman accused of killing her boyfriend told first responders that she believed he was trying to kill her, but there’s a gap in her memory surrounding the moments her boyfriend was shot and killed.
Brittany Holbrook is charged with murder in the death of her boyfriend, Tyler Nulisch. (Monroe County Sheriff’s Office)
Brittany Holbrook, 33, is charged with murder without premeditation in the death of her boyfriend, Tyler Nulisch.
In an arrest affidavit obtained by Court TV, police said that the victim’s roommate, Jordan Kinn, called 911 just before 3 a.m. on Saturday. He told dispatchers that he had been asleep in his room when he heard Holbrook scream and that the couple had been arguing. Kinn described the victim as being “in bad shape” and said there was a lot of blood.
Deputies with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office arrived approximately four minutes after the call was made and found Holbrook “cradling the victim covered in blood on the ground.” Nulisch was unconscious but breathing when deputies arrived.
Nulisch was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead at 3:46 a.m. Detectives said it was later determined that Nulisch “sustained a possible gunshot wound to his lower left back.”
Kinn told police at the scene that when he was woken by Holbrook’s scream, he went out of his room and saw Nulisch lying on the floor of the living room, and said he was going in and out of consciousness. When Kinn asked Nulisch what happened, Nulisch said, “That bitch shot me in the back,” referring to Holbrook.
Detectives interviewed Holbrook, who said that she lived at the home and had been dating Nulisch for approximately nine months. She said that after a night of drinking she went to bed with Nulisch. She said there was a gap in her memory and “the next thing she remembered she was in the living room holding Nulisch who was covered in blood.”
When a second detective spoke to Holbrook, she said that she “remembers waking up in bed to Nulisch strangling her. She does not remember how she got away, but then remembers him again strangling her, with his hand around her throat, this time she was standing and he was pushing her against a wall in the bedroom. The next thing she remembered she was holding Nulisch on the floor in the living room.”
Speaking a third time with investigators, Holbrook said she remembered Nulisch going into the bathroom, and upon returning “he was like a different person and began to attack her.” She said that Nulisch was holding her throat so tightly that her breathing was restricted and that she believed he was trying to kill her. Officers noted no marks on her throat or petechiae in either of her eyes. Detectives did note bruising on several knuckles of her right hand.
Holbrook is due in court for an arraignment on June 28 in Key West.
