Retrial for accused wife-killer begins

The girlfriend of the Daly City man charged with fatally stabbing his wife is the real killer, driven to that point by the knowledge that she would never have him all to herself, according to his defense attorney.

Only one person understood how much Quincy Dean Norton Sr., 36, loved his wife, attorney Lisa Maguire told jurors yesterday during opening statements in his murder trial.

"She is the woman who killed Tamika Norton because of it and that is Anitra Johnson,” Maguire said.

Although Johnson is not on trial and has never been charged in Tamika Norton’s July 22, 2006 death, the defense wants jurors to believe she is the one culpable and that Quincy Norton simply fled the scene after discovering the body because he knew he would be blamed.

Prosecutor Al Giannini never said Johnson was innocent — she is "in this up to her eyes,” he said — but told jurors their job is to weigh the evidence against Norton rather than contemplate her role.

Norton’s role, according to Giannini, was that of a jealous, philandering husband who previously beat his wife and couldn’t accept that the 31-year-old mother of his three children was filing for divorce. The couple had a tumultuous relationship, according to both sides, punctuated by Norton’s drinking and infidelities, including the affair with Johnson which produced a daughter. Tamika Norton reached her breaking point when her husband came home once "stinking drunk” and decided to take the couple’s 1-year-old daughter outside.

"Now he was a danger to the children and that was intolerable,” Giannini said.

Tamika Norton’s close friend also died suddenly of leukemia, making her realize she needed Norton out of her life, Giannini said.

Rather than accept that, Giannini told jurors that Norton stabbed his wife several times with a kitchen knife on the day she was expected to attend her friend’s funeral before scooping up the three children and driving them in her car to the home of his brother’s common-law wife. He remained at large for five weeks.

The timing of Tamika Norton’s death, and the events of the night before, are critical points of contention in the trial. The two older Norton children, 7 and 9 at the time, will testify about hearing her scream their names and Quincy Norton Jr. will tell jurors he saw his father standing and holding her down in the couple’s bedroom.

Maguire told jurors the young boys are confused about dates and times, mixing up an earlier argument between their parents with the morning their mother died. On July 21, 2006, Norton went to Johnson’s Milpitas home and infuriated her because he couldn’t stay long, she said.

Johnson, according to Maguire, left with Norton’s keys. He allegedly fell asleep, waking in the early hours to Johnson washing up, and drove home to Daly City where he found his wife on the ground in a pool of blood. Johnson has thought the couple’s marriage was nearing its ends but when he began putting his wife first after her friend died, the girlfriend realized "he was starting to slip away again,” Maguire said.

Maguire plans to cement her case with DNA evidence, placing Johnson in the home on Mira Vista Court and — possibly more damning — in blood splatter in the kitchen and on a knife handle.

Giannini told jurors there is more evidence fingering Norton than the words of his two sons but that the testimony, particularly the recollection of hearing their dying mother scream, is what will bring the case together.

"When you hear those boys, you’re going to believe them and when you believe them you’re going to know who the killer is,” Giannini said. "The killer is in this courtroom and his name is Quincy Norton.”

Just after opening statements, one male juror was dismissed for having conducted online research about parties involved in the case.

Norton’s trial is actually his second time before a jury in this case. In May 15, 2008, jurors found Norton guilty of first-degree murder and the use of a knife. The conviction was overturned in May 2009 when Judge Craig Parsons found that the defendant’s attorney had provided inadequate representation by not re-testing the potential murder weapon for DNA.

If Norton is convicted again of the same charges, he faces 26 years to life in prison.

Norton remains in custody on no-bail status. The prosecution continues its case today.

Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102.