A shooting early Saturday morning at a house on Big Coppitt Key led to the death of Tyler Nulisch, 30, and the arrest of his girlfriend, Brittany Holbrook, 33, for murder.
Jordan Kinn, the couple’s roommate in the home at 491 Avenue F, called 911 just before 3 a.m. on Saturday, June 17, saying “his roommate, Tyler Nulisch, ‘is in bad shape. He’s hurt real bad and there is a lot of blood,’” according to the arrest affidavit provided to the Keys Weekly by the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office.
Deputies and detectives from Monroe County Sheriff’s Office arrived within five minutes, followed immediately by paramedics from Monroe County Fire Rescue.
The victim, Nulisch, was lying on the living room floor, bleeding from his lower back. A 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun was visible to investigators, along with a spent shell casing on the floor near a dog kennel, the affidavit states.
The roommate said he was aware of two handguns in the home, one of which was owned by Holbrook, who told police she had been in a dating relationship with the victim for about nine months, and was living with him in the Big Coppitt home.
When paramedics and deputies arrived, Nulisch was unconscious, but breathing. He was taken to Lower Keys Medical Center, where he died an hour later.
Jordan Kinn, the roommate, who had been sleeping in his bedroom, told investigators his roommates had been arguing, and he was later awakened by Holbrook’s scream.
When he went to the living room to investigate, Nulisch was lying on the floor bleeding and was in and out of consciousness. When the roommate asked the victim what had happened, Nulisch reportedly said, “The bitch shot me in the back,” according to the arrest affidavit.
Kinn told detectives Holbrook hadn’t responded when the victim said she had shot him in the back.
Kinn, the roommate, was neither charged nor arrested.
He told detectives the three roommates had been drinking alcoholic beverages after work on the patio under their stilted house. All three eventually went to bed. Then the roommate woke up when he heard Holbrook screaming in the living room.
During interviews with detectives, “Holbrook stated there was a gap in her memory.” After going to bed in the room she shared with the victim, the affidavit states, “The next thing she remembered, she was in the living room holding Nulisch, who was covered in blood. She was screaming, which woke up Kinn. Kinn contacted 911 and let responding deputies in the front gate a few minutes later. Holbrook stated Nulisch did not make any statements while he was laying on the floor,” the affidavit states, despite Kinn’s report to detectives that Nulisch had told him that Holbrook had shot him in the back.
In later interviews with detectives, Holbrook said she had remembered more.
“She stated she remembers Nulisch leaving their bed and walking to the bathroom. When he returned from the bathroom, he was like a different person and began to attack her. While she was being held against the wall, she described Nulisch squeezing her throat with his hands hard enough that it restricted her breathing. No marks of any kind were observed around her throat. No petechiae were observed in either of her eyes,” according to the affidavit.
(Petechiae are small, flat red dots that represent burst capillaries, according to medical forensics. iIn strangulation cases, they are above the point of constriction and are a result of the obstruction of the jugular veins.)
The arrest document continues, “Nulisch stated she punched and scratched Nulisch. Bruising on several knuckles on her right hand were observed. Holbrook stated she believed Nulisch was attempting to kill her. She continued to claim there was a gap in her memory and she did not remember how she was able to get away from Nulisch. Nulisch stated she had not fired a gun since moving from Stuart, Florida over nine months ago.”
“Based on Kinn’s statement, the dying declaration made by Nulisch to Kinn, the inconsistencies in Holbrook’s statements, Holbrook’s lack of injuries consistent with strangulation, and my training and experience, I believe there is probable cause to arrest Brittany Hollbrook for murder,” the affidavit states.
Holbrook’s mugshot and arrest report on the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office website shows her job as a “manager in Key West.” The MCSO website shows no other arrests for Holbrook in Monroe County.
County property records show that the home at 491 Avenue F, Big Coppitt Key is owned by Manuel Ruiz, who owns four other properties in Monroe County and was neither present for, nor involved in, the shooting.
Stay tuned to keysweekly.com as further details become available.
