Hours after his girlfriend killed a man by stabbing him a dozen times inside an Ashburnham treehouse in what she described as a “surprise gift” for him, prosecutors say Jonathan Lind helped try to cover up the killing.
Lind and his girlfriend, Julia Enright, encased Brandon Chicklis’ body, riddled with stab wounds, in two plastic trash bags. Prosecutors say they then wrapped Chicklis in a comforter and dumped his body roughly 12 miles across state lines in Rindge, New Hampshire. His body wasn’t found for weeks.
Later that evening, the couple went out to sushi as they attempted to craft an alibi for Enright, prosecutors say. After the couple’s dinner, prosecutors say Lind’s phone showed he again traveled to the town where Chicklis’ body was found. The next day, his phone pinged near the area where Chicklis’ car was found.
The alibi, however, didn’t work. Enright was later arrested and charged with Brandon Chicklis’ murder.
But it wasn’t until Enright was convicted roughly three years after the murder that Lind was in police custody, charged with being an accessory to the murder. During her trial, Enright testified about his involvement in the cover-up of the killing.
Yet when Lind’s trial begins next month prosecutors won’t be able to tell jurors Enright has been convicted of Chicklis’ murder. That means they’ll have to convince a jury not just of Lind’s guilt but that the 2018 murder took place at all.
Multiple trials
Lind was 25 when Enright was convicted in December 2021. Three years later, he is set to go to trial himself — twice.
In addition to charges of being an accessory after the fact to Chicklis’ murder, he also faces charges of conveying a body and perjury.
He will not be tried on the perjury charge when his trial begins in Worcester Superior Court next month after his defense and prosecutors moved to separate it. That decision came after a judge ruled that testimony Lind gave to a grand jury could not be used in support of the other charges but could be used in the perjury case.
The judge determined Lind had not been properly warned he was the target of a criminal investigation before testifying.
Who is Enright?
At the time of the murder, Enright was a 21-year-old dominatrix with a fondness for dark humor.
On June 23, 2018, she killed Chicklis, her 20-year-old former boyfriend. A jury convicted her of second-degree murder in 2021. She claimed the killing was in self-defense and that Chicklis tried to rape her.
During her trial, prosecutors unveiled chilling details about her fascination with killing, including showing writings where she said she had an “insatiable curiosity to kill a person” and “being aroused by an event.” She ran a side business as a dominatrix.
In her bedroom, investigators found a raven or crow in a jar, an organ in a jar, knives, four vials of blood and some kind of outfit similar to a bodysuit.
Jurors were also shown remarks from Enright that she engaged in cutting and blood play.
The day before the murder, Enright asked Lind, “Do you think we could add bubbles to a blood bath?” He responded he was sure they could find a way.
After the murder, Enright wrote that Lind may not have liked the “surprise.”
The night of the murder
On June 23, 2018, Chicklis agreed to meet Enright inside the treehouse.
The pair had dated in high school and had sex in the small hut on a property neighboring Enright’s before. Despite being in a relationship with Lind at the time, Enright had been seeing other people.
Though Enright said she initially intended to have sex with Chicklis in the treehouse that day, a text message from Lind made her rethink things, she testified.
“I wanted to slow it down. My boyfriend had been really sick that weekend and I think it was really a wake-up call. He needed me,” she said. “I thought I would end it and then go back and hang out with my boyfriend.”
But then, Chicklis tried to kiss her again and pushed her toward the corner of the treehouse, Enright testified. She said she tried to get him to stop but he kept touching her.
She then testified that she pulled out a knife that she often carried with her and stabbed him.
After the killing, Enright said she hid in the woods for about 40 minutes before going back toward the treehouse, where she could still hear music playing from her phone.
Eventually, Enright changed clothes, hopped into her Prius and drove to Lind’s house, which was about five minutes away.
She told him she needed help and they went back to the treehouse, Enright testified.
“Brandon was laying face down facing the door. I touched his shoulder and he didn’t move,” she said.
After prosecutors say the pair wrapped up Chicklis’ body in trash bags and a comforter, they drove around looking for somewhere to hide him. They ended up in New Hampshire.
“We just picked 119 because it was right there. I don’t know why we picked it,” she said.
That day, prosecutors say, Lind’s cellphone traveled from his home in Ashburnham to Enright’s home around 3 p.m.
Roughly four hours later, the phone moved north to Southern New Hampshire, near a Hannaford supermarket in Rindge where police found Chicklis’ car. By 8 p.m., Lind’s phone had returned to his home.
That night, prosecutors said, Lind and Enright went out to a sushi dinner and crafted an alibi, with Enright sending texts to Chicklis’ phone implying she had not seen him that afternoon.
Around 9:30 p.m. that same night, Lind’s phone was again on the move, this time traveling to Enright’s home and then to the area in Rindge where Chicklis’ body was discovered, court records state. Around 10:30 p.m., the phone was back at Lind’s home in Ashburnham.
Lind told police he was sick in bed on June 23 and 24, 2018, and that Enright came to visit him.
The jury for Enright’s trial decided her testimony wasn’t credible.
Who was Chicklis?
Chicklis was about a week away from turning 21 when his body was found.
In his obituary, his family remembered him as “a kind young man that was loved, is missed, and will always remain in our hearts.”
Chicklis attended school in Fitchburg and graduated from Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School, where he met Enright, in 2015.
He was a member of the Boy Scouts of America for more than a decade and had achieved the rank of Life Scout with a Fitchburg-based troop.
“Brandon really enjoyed the outdoors, hiking, and camping which made the Scouts of America a great fit for him,” the obituary reads.“His favorite trip was when Troop 41 went and spent over a week at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.”
Prior to his death, Chicklis had been working for an HVAC company for about 2 years.
“He enjoyed his job and was always trying to fix stuff at home that he had learned from work,” his family wrote.
Lind’s upcoming trial
A Worcester Superior Court judge set a final pre-trial hearing in Lind’s case for Tuesday. Jury selection in his trial is expected to start at 9 a.m. on Dec. 5.
When Lind was indicted in 2022, he also faced a charge of misleading a police officer or investigator, but it was later dropped by prosecutors.
Lind faces no more than seven years in prison on the accessory charge and three years on the conveying a body charge.
Material from previous MassLive stories was used in this report.
