Norton convicted of murdering Tabitha
The Argus-Press
January 22, 1994
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. [AP] - a 35-year-old man was convicted Friday of second-degree murder in the suffocation of his fiancee's 3-year-old daughter.
Kenneth M. Norton Jr. faces up to life in prison for killing Tabatha Horn July 5, 1993, while her mother was hospitalized for epilepsy tests.
Prosecutors said Norton killed the girl while disciplining her, then buried her near the Vestaburg home he shared with Wendy Gokee and nine children.
He drove south to Brighton, saying he was taking the girl to visit Gokee at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. He reported her kidnapped while he briefly left his car at a convenience store. Deputies found the toddler's body four days later. Norton's teenage daughter's testified to seeing Tabatha blind-folded, seated in a chair with her hands behind her back and crying the night before she was reported missing.
Norton testified he didn't kill the girl, but had buried her after finding her dead in bed. He said he feared either his 14- or 15-year-old daughter had killed her.
The Isabella County Jury began deliberating late Thursday, broke and resumed deliberations Friday. It returned a verdict at midafternoon. The jurors had been instructed they could find Norton innocent or convict him of first-degree or second-degree murder, or voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.
Norton found guilty of killing 3-year-old
South Bend Tribune (IN)
January 23, 1994
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A man who testified he buried his fiancée's 3-year-old child because he feared one of his daughters might have killed her was found guilty of second-degree murder Friday.
The jury deliberated about six hours over two days before finding Kenneth M. Norton Jr., 35, of Vestaburg guilty in the suffocation death of Tabatha Horn on July 5, 1993.
Norton faces a sentence of up to life in prison when he is sentenced next month by Circuit Judge Paul Chamberlain.
``He took something away from me I can't get back. He can get his freedom back,'' Tabatha's mother, Wendy Gokee , told Detroit's WDIV-TV.
``But no matter how many years go by, I can't get back what I lost,'' Gokee said.
Prosecutors alleged that Norton killed Tabatha while disciplining her, then buried her near the
Vestaburg home he shared with Gokee and nine children.
He drove south to Brighton, saying he was taking the girl to visit Gokee when she was undergoing epilepsy tests at University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.
He reported her kidnapped after he briefly left his car at a convenience store.
Deputies found the toddler's body four days later.
Norton's teen-age daughters had testified to seeing Tabatha blindfolded, seated in a chair with her hands behind her back and crying the night before she was reported missing.
Norton testified he didn't kill the girl, but buried her after finding her dead in bed.
He said he feared either his 14-or 15-year-old daughter had killed her, but did not confront either of them about the death.
During the two-week trial, Gokee had stormed off the witness stand at one point and suffered an epileptic seizure after becoming enraged at the antics of some people in the courthouse.
The Isabella County jury had been instructed they could find Norton innocent or convict him of first-degree or second-degree murder, or voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.
Vestaburg man found guilty of suffocating his fiancée's daughter
South Bend Tribune (IN)
January 23, 1994
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. - A man who testified he buried his fiancee's 3-year-old child because he feared one of his daughters might have killed her was found guilty of second-degree murder Friday.
The jury deliberated about six hours over two days before finding Kenneth M. Norton Jr., 35, of Vestaburg guilty in the suffocation death of Tabatha Horn on July 5, 1993.
Norton faces a sentence of up to life in prison when he is sentenced next month by Circuit Judge Paul Chamberlain.
``He took something away from me I can't get back. He can get his freedom back,'' Tabatha's mother, Wendy Gokee , told Detroit's WDIV-TV.
``But no matter how many years go by, I can't get back what I lost,'' Gokee said.
Prosecutors alleged that Norton killed Tabatha while disciplining her, then buried her near the
Vestaburg home he shared with Gokee and nine children.
He drove south to Brighton, saying he was taking the girl to visit Gokee when she was undergoing epilepsy tests at University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor.
He reported her kidnapped after he briefly left his car at a convenience store.
Deputies found the toddler's body four days later.
Norton's teen-age daughters had testified to seeing Tabatha blindfolded, seated in a chair with her hands behind her back and crying the night before she was reported missing.
Norton testified he didn't kill the girl, but buried her after finding her dead in bed.
He said he feared either his 14-or 15-year-old daughter had killed her, but did not confront either of them about the death.
During the two-week trial, Gokee had stormed off the witness stand at one point and suffered an epileptic seizure after becoming enraged at the antics of some people in the courthouse.
The Isabella County jury had been instructed they could find Norton innocent or convict him of first-degree or second-degree murder, or voluntary or involuntary manslaughter.
Guilty
Clare Sentinel
January 25, 1994
Kenneth Norton Jr., 31, was found guilty Friday of killing 3-year-old Tabatha Horn last July. A Circuit Court jury returned a verdict of second degree murder. He will be' sentenced Feb. 10 by Isabella County Circuit Court Judge Paul Chamberlain following a pre-sentence investigation. The sentence can be any number of years up to life. The jury had the option of returning a verdict ranging from not guilty to first degree murder (premeditated), mandatory life sentence.
Norton, convicted of second-degree murder, paroled
The Morning Sun
Jan 09, 2013
http://www.themorningsun.com/article/MS/20130109/NEWS01/130109664
http://www.themorningsun.com/article/MS/20130109/NEWS01/130109664
A former Isabella County man is free after serving two decades in prison for the second-degree murder of a 3-year-old girl.
Kenneth Monroe Norton Jr., 54, was released from a prison in Muskegon County Dec. 11, after serving nearly 19 years of a 22- to 35-year sentence.
Norton, who will be on supervised release in Muskegon County for two years, was convicted in Isabella County of killing his girlfriend’s daughter, Tabatha Horn, in July 1993.
He was sentenced Feb. 10, 1994, four years prior to the passage of Truth in Sentencing by the Michigan Legislature, which mandates that prisoners serve maximum minimum sentences before being eligible for parole.
Because Norton, who lived in Fremont Township at the time of the murder, was incarcerated before Truth in Sentencing, he was eligible for time off for good behavior.
Norton was denied parole in June 2011 but served less than the maximum-minimum sentence, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman John Cordell said.
Former Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick, who handled the murder case, contacted the Michigan Parole Board in June to comment on the “tragic and disturbing aspects of” Tabatha’s murder, and cautioned the board to “look carefully at the case and Norton’s record when reviewing the matter for parole.”
“In the end, his release is a function of his sentence, which makes him eligible, and the parole board’s determination that he is not a risk to the public,” said Burdick, who retired in September after being prosecutor for 24 years.
Early releases were the one of the driving forces behind the Truth in Sentencing law, Burdick said.
An Isabella County jury found Norton guilty of second-degree murder in January 1994.
Tabatha disappeared in July 1993; her body was found less than two miles from Norton’s home, just inside Montcalm County.
Norton reported the girl missing July 5, 1993, telling authorities that she vanished from his car at a convenience store in Livingston County’s Brighton while the two were headed to Ann Arbor to visit Tabatha’s mother, Wendy Gokee.
At the time of the disappearance, Norton was a corrections officer at the Carson City Correctional facility, and Gokee was in the University of Michigan Hospital undergoing tests.
Norton told police in Brighton that he didn’t remember when he last saw Tabatha but that he was certain she started the trip with him.
Norton’s car yielded no clues, and nobody at the convenience store saw the girl.
Norton was arrested July 8, 1994 after police discovered her body the same day in a shallow grave.
A woman who wanted to remain anonymous offered a tip that the girls’ body would be found in or by a green duffle bag near a wishing well, police said at the time of the investigation.
Police followed a two-track road and discovered the grave, about 150 yards away from a wishing well, on land near County Line Road, according to previous reports.
Tabatha’s body was identified later than night.
Police said at the time that Norton was linked to the murder because he was the last person to see Tabatha and because there were inconsistencies in his account to police about what happened.
Although not admissible in court, Norton also refused to take a polygraph test.
Kenneth Monroe Norton Jr., 54, was released from a prison in Muskegon County Dec. 11, after serving nearly 19 years of a 22- to 35-year sentence.
Norton, who will be on supervised release in Muskegon County for two years, was convicted in Isabella County of killing his girlfriend’s daughter, Tabatha Horn, in July 1993.
He was sentenced Feb. 10, 1994, four years prior to the passage of Truth in Sentencing by the Michigan Legislature, which mandates that prisoners serve maximum minimum sentences before being eligible for parole.
Because Norton, who lived in Fremont Township at the time of the murder, was incarcerated before Truth in Sentencing, he was eligible for time off for good behavior.
Norton was denied parole in June 2011 but served less than the maximum-minimum sentence, Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman John Cordell said.
Former Isabella County Prosecutor Larry Burdick, who handled the murder case, contacted the Michigan Parole Board in June to comment on the “tragic and disturbing aspects of” Tabatha’s murder, and cautioned the board to “look carefully at the case and Norton’s record when reviewing the matter for parole.”
“In the end, his release is a function of his sentence, which makes him eligible, and the parole board’s determination that he is not a risk to the public,” said Burdick, who retired in September after being prosecutor for 24 years.
Early releases were the one of the driving forces behind the Truth in Sentencing law, Burdick said.
An Isabella County jury found Norton guilty of second-degree murder in January 1994.
Tabatha disappeared in July 1993; her body was found less than two miles from Norton’s home, just inside Montcalm County.
Norton reported the girl missing July 5, 1993, telling authorities that she vanished from his car at a convenience store in Livingston County’s Brighton while the two were headed to Ann Arbor to visit Tabatha’s mother, Wendy Gokee.
At the time of the disappearance, Norton was a corrections officer at the Carson City Correctional facility, and Gokee was in the University of Michigan Hospital undergoing tests.
Norton told police in Brighton that he didn’t remember when he last saw Tabatha but that he was certain she started the trip with him.
Norton’s car yielded no clues, and nobody at the convenience store saw the girl.
Norton was arrested July 8, 1994 after police discovered her body the same day in a shallow grave.
A woman who wanted to remain anonymous offered a tip that the girls’ body would be found in or by a green duffle bag near a wishing well, police said at the time of the investigation.
Police followed a two-track road and discovered the grave, about 150 yards away from a wishing well, on land near County Line Road, according to previous reports.
Tabatha’s body was identified later than night.
Police said at the time that Norton was linked to the murder because he was the last person to see Tabatha and because there were inconsistencies in his account to police about what happened.
Although not admissible in court, Norton also refused to take a polygraph test.
