A jury has found a 34-year-old Yelm woman guilty of murdering her wife in 2020 while their children were present.
Sheriff's deputies arrested Zilla Ayana Crowley, who previously identified as Michael Anthony Brower, on May 21, 2020, on suspicion of fatally shooting Tuyen Dang Ngoc Brower, 30, the day prior.
The verdict, reached Wednesday, concluded a three-week-long jury trial, leaving Crowley convicted of second-degree murder domestic violence while armed with a firearm and while in the presence of a child. A sentencing hearing will be set in August, according to an order signed by Superior Court Judge John Skinder.
During the trial, Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Jennifer Lord and Alexis Egolf argued Crowley shot her wife in the chest during an argument that had awoken their four young children, according to a press release from the Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
Crowley reportedly ordered the oldest child back into her room prior to the shooting that caused Tuyen Brower's death, according to the release.
Crowley was arrested and held without bail, The Olympian previously reported.
"Without the support of our great team and the hard work of the Thurston County Sheriff's Office, we could not have held the defendant accountable," Lord said in the news release. "We are grateful to have justice for the victim and her children."
Crowley told pretrial services that she's a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was deployed to Iraq, according to court documents. She had no prior criminal convictions at the time of her arrest on the murder charge.
However, she was previously accused of fourth-degree assault domestic violence in a Pierce County District Court case that also involved Tuyen Brower. That court ordered Crowley have no contact with her wife for two years, but the order expired in 2019.
Court documents describe the state's case against Crowley from the perspective of law enforcement.
In the evening of May 20, 2020, deputies responded to a 911 call at a home on the 21900 block of Beachside Drive Southeast in Yelm.
Deputies arrived to find Crowley performing CPR on Tuyen Brower. First responders took over, but she was later pronounced dead at the scene. The children were physically unharmed and taken into custody by Child Protective Services.
The memorandum notes Brower had a gunshot wound in her chest and there was a rifle on the floor next to her, according to a memorandum.
A law enforcement investigation found Crowley told dispatch she "had shot (her) wife in the chest while moving a rifle," according to a probable cause statement.
Deputies detained Crowley in a patrol car and she reportedly admitted to shooting her wife as soon as detectives introduced themselves, according to the memorandum.
Detectives also noted there was an odor of intoxicants when they opened the passenger door of the patrol vehicle, according to court documents.
Crowley reportedly told detectives she had been married to Brower for about a decade and lived at the Yelm home for about three years, according to the memorandum.
That evening, Crowley said they had gotten into an argument over her gender identity, and she claimed Brower threatened to stab her. However, the memorandum says Brower did not have a knife when Crowley shot her.
Friends of Brower told investigators they had at least 40 separate conversations in which Brower alleged Crowley assaulted her, according to the probable cause statement.
An autopsy later confirmed Brower died due to a gunshot wound to the torso and the manner of death was deemed a homicide, according to the memorandum.
