Shayla Jeanne Brattin, nicknamed "Batgirl," is the second person to be arrested in connection with the June 24 murder of a Glendale church janitor.
Police listed the 23-year-old woman as homeless in court records, though most of her Facebook selfies appear to have been taken in a home. She's accused of -- and reportedly confessed to -- a key role in a crime scheme that climaxed with the senseless shooting death of 72-year-old Mark Woodruff.
The robbery was of the scarier variety: A group of punks desperate for drug money spotted the elderly man at a gas station and tailed him home, where one of them shot the victim.
Brattin, another woman named Dana Duncan (who apparently is still on the loose) and co-defendant Gustin Woodman had been driving around in Woodman's white Toyota RAV4 when they spotted Woodruff and his fat wallet at the ARCO on 43rd and Northern avenues, she later told police.
Upon noticing that the wallet in the man's hand appeared to be stuffed with bills, the three didn't even need to verbalize their plan to rob Woodruff -- "it was just understood," Brattin said, according to court records.
With Brattin keeping an eye out for Woodruff's vehicle, which they lost for a time, the thugs eventually pulled up behind Woodruff as the janitor arrived home to the 4300 block of West Maryland Avenue, records state. Woodman, who'd been sitting in the back seat, jumped out of the car. Brattin didn't hear any gunshots, she later told police.
Woodman never got the wallet -- he stole the victim's cell phone, which the group found worthless and tossed out the Toyota's window.
Woodruff had been hit once out of two shots fired. Police recovered one shell casing at the murder scene.
Two days later, Glendale police stopped Woodman on suspicion of drag racing and confiscated his gun, which he wasn't allowed to possess legally because the ex-con was on parole for another crime. The Toyota and the gun actually belonged to his father.
Woodman was released from jail on July 13 -- before an empty shell casing in the gun was linked to the June 24 murder. Woodman, meanwhile, had fled to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested for a carjacking. When Glendale police interviewed him, he named Duncan and the woman he knew only as "Batgirl" -- because of the Batman logo tattooed on her left cheek -- as accomplices.
Brattin was picked up at 19th and Northern avenues on Wednesday and confessed, court records state. She's being held on potential charges of first-degree murder and armed robbery. Woodman's been indicted by a grand jury on a first-degree murder charge.
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