Woman, 20, Found Guilty of Mom’s Murder

A former high school honors student and cheerleader, accused of plotting with her boyfriend to kill her mother for a $310,000 inheritance, was found guilty Wednesday of conspiracy and first-degree murder.

Amber Merrie Bray, 20, could be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a ten-man, two-woman jury convicted her on the felony counts and two special circumstances allegations--lying in wait and murder for financial gain.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 23 by Superior Court Judge Teri Schwartz.

A second jury continued to weigh the case against Bray’s boyfriend and alleged accomplice, Jeffrey Glenn Ayers, 23. He was also charged with killing Warner Bros. record executive Dixie Lee Hollier, 43, who was shot, beaten and stabbed two dozen times in her home.

Bray, who wore a flowered, pale blue skirt and white sweater, burst into tears when the verdicts were read.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Al MacKenzie, who did not seek the death penalty against Bray or Ayers, also was silent. Bray defense counsel Joy Walenski said she would not talk at all, saying she distrusts reporters.

A juror, who would not give his name, told reporters: “I’ve been a juror on several murder trials, and its never easy . . . it’s very emotional.” He called the case “rough, very rough.”

During the case, MacKenzie argued that the couple intended to kill Hollier and Amber Bray’s younger sister, Amy, introducing several letters between Amber and Ayres.

MacKenzie read one note to the jury entitled “Someday in November,” that Bray wrote to Ayers.

“What do you think of this? . . . someone breaks into the house and kills Amy and mom,” Bray wrote to Ayres two months before the slaying. She said the money Hollier would leave behind would pay for a Riverside County house, sports car and furniture.

“Have I snapped? Plotting murder and stuff . . . After years of abuse I’ve had it,”

During the trial Bray’s lawyer called those words “foolish and silly,” reflecting “plans for the future,” not a “plan to commit murder.”

However, authorities told a different story.

About 5 a.m. on Jan. 16, 1996, several Burbank police officers testified, they went to Hollier’s home after neighbors heard gunshots. Through a window, they saw a man straddling a body and thrusting his hands downward, they said.

When they entered, Ayers put his hands in the air and asked to surrender, according to police testimony. “I’m responsible for what happened,” they quoted him as saying. “I’m fully aware of what I’ve done.”

Hollier’s body lay sprawled in the front hallway, with two gunshot wounds to the head and pierced by more than two dozen stab wounds.

As police pieced the case together they discovered Ayers purchased a five-shot revolver from a friend the night before the killing, prosecutors said. It was the same gun used to shoot Hollier, police testified.

The morning of the killing, Amy Bray testified, she was awakened by two loud bangs. After rushing to help her mother, Ayers yelled “she has to be stopped,” according to Amy’s testimony.

Prosecutors contend Amy tried to call 911 but was thwarted by Amber, who pulled the telephone cord out of the wall.