Crime & Safety
Marion Man Imprisoned For Sexual Assault Convicted of California Cold Case Murder
Brian Eric Norton, a 45-year-old Marion resident convicted of sexually assaulting an Iowa woman, was convicted of a California cold case murder due to DNA and a testimony by the victim.
A Marion man convicted of sexually assaulting an unidentified Iowa woman in 2009 has been convicted of murder in a decades-old Redding, Calif. cold case.
A prosecutor in California told KCRG that the DNA evidence and a testimony by the very victim of the sexual assault helped convict 45-year-old Brian Eric Norton.
"Her (Iowa victim) testimony was a great benefit," said Shasta County Deputy District Attorney Eamon Fitzgerald to KCRG. "She was courageous to testify the first time and now in this one."
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Norton was serving a 10-year sentence at the time of the trial.
The district attorney said Norton lived in the northern California city between 1991 and 1995. She said Norton offered the victim, Despina Magioudis, $20 for sex, then raped, strangled and beat her after she refused.
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Norton has been charged with first-degree murder. A sentencing date has been scheduled for Nov. 5.
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