Woman Guilty of Killing Her Mother for Inheritance

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 Pasadena Superior Court jury convicted her on the felony counts and two special circumstances allegations--lying in wait and murder for financial gain.

Sentencing was scheduled for April 23 by 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 Burbank home.

Bray burst into tears when the verdicts were read as her father, Tom Bray, nervously interlocked his fingers. He declined to comment afterward.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Al MacKenzie, who did not seek the death penalty against Bray or Ayers, also declined comment, as did Bray’s attorney, Joy Walenski.

MacKenzie had contended 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 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.

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

Burbank police officers testified that they went to Hollier’s home about 5 a.m. on Jan. 16, 1996, after neighbors reported hearing 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, police said.

Prosecutors contend Amy tried to call 911 but was thwarted by both Amber and Ayers.