FIRST ON FOX: A Florida woman threatened to slice her ex-boyfriend "like she was gutting a deer" two days before police say she murdered her new lover, the slain man's friend told Fox News Digital.
Brittany Holbrook, 33, allegedly shot Tyler Nulisch, 30, in the back early Saturday morning at their Key West home, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital.
Two days earlier, Holbrook went out for drinks with a woman who was dating one of Nulisch's friends.
After a few drinks, she allegedly brought up her ex-boyfriend, the woman told Nulisch's friend Jessica Stiegel. "I'm going to kill him and take a knife into his stomach and rip upward to his throat like I'm gutting a deer," Stiegel said the woman recounted to her.
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The woman allegedly told Stiegel she was having a good time, but as Holbrook kept drinking, she became sloppy and launched into the violent rant.
Stiegel said that was the problem with Holbrook. She was affable until she drank.
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"They were in love. Everyone saw this. They seemed like the perfect couple," Stiegel added. The pair bonded over a love of fishing, diving and their Catahoula dogs, Chief and Mossie.
However, their promising future ended the morning of June 17. Shortly before 3 a.m., the couple's roommate, Jordan Kinn, awoke in their second-floor apartment to the sound of Holbrook screaming for help.
Nulisch was lying on his back in a pool of blood. Kinn asked what happened as he frantically tried to stanch the bleeding. "That b---- shot me in the back," Nulisch replied before losing consciousness and dying, according to the police report.
Holbrook initially told detectives there was a "gap in her memory." The couple and their roommate had been drinking on the patio before they all went to bed.
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However, her story changed in later interviews.
Out of nowhere, in the middle of the night, she said, Nulisch began to attack her, pushing her up against a wall and "strangling her." She claimed he was trying to kill her, but she denied firing a gun.
Investigators with the Monroe County Sheriff's Office concluded her statements were inconsistent and noted no injuries around her neck. She was arrested on one count of premeditated murder.
Stiegel said his friends and family "want Tyler's name cleared."
Several friends had witnessed Holbrook attack him. "She seemed so normal most of the time but when she drank, she'd become a monster and a switch would flip, and she'd start screaming and throwing things and hitting Tyler," Stiegel said.
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John Buckheim, Nulisch's best friend from childhood, owns the Keys Fresh Seafood Market with his partner, Stiegel. Nulisch often helped them with their business.
"He had the most loving, kind soul," Stiegel said. "He would never hurt her even to defend himself."
Stiegel, Buckheim and Kinn cleaned up the crime scene, so Nulisch's mom would not have to see the aftermath of his murder.
The trio quickly realized how premeditated the shooting was, Stiegel said. Holbrook always kept her gun loaded in the purse of her unlocked car. Sure enough, her purse was open and sitting on the passenger side seat, but her gun was not there.
"She had to have gone down that flight of stairs, gone back up to the front door and shot him from the doorway as he was standing with his back to her. That's a lot of time to think," Stiegel said.
"She loved him it was so obvious. She shouldn’t have been drinking, and she had no business having that gun," Stiegel added.
A celebration of life for Nulisch is being held Saturday at 6 p.m. at the Keys Seafood Market on Stock Island.
Holbrook is being held on a $750,000 bond at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office, records show.
