By Elizabeth Pfeffer
For the San Mateo County Times
Posted: 09/14/2010 09:50:08 AM PDT
Updated: 09/14/2010 09:50:09 AM PDT
REDWOOD CITY -- Opening arguments proceeded Monday in the second murder trial of a man accused of fatally attacking his wife with a kitchen knife four years ago in their Daly City home.
A jury had already found 36-year-old Quincy Norton guilty of first-degree murder when in May 2009 a judge declared his attorney incompetent for having failed to get the weapon tested by an independent lab. The guilty verdict was vacated, and Norton was held to stand trial again in the brutal 2006 slaying of Tamika Mack-Norton, 31; his new attorney claims DNA evidence on the knife points to someone else as the killer.
Prosecutor Al Giannini introduced a San Mateo County Superior Court jury to a man he described as a violent, jealous alcoholic who flew off the handle when Mack-Norton filed for divorce shortly before her death. He said the man they would become familiar with during the course of the trial was "flagrantly unfaithful," "extraordinarily controlling" and was known to "beat her with his fists until she began to lose consciousness."
These purported character traits, however, are the reason Norton never got a fair shot during the police investigation, said defense attorney Lisa Maguire, who told jurors that evidence pointed to Anitra Johnson, Norton's girlfriend and mother of one of his children, as the probable killer.
"The police never viewed this case as a 'whodunit,' " Maguire said.
Maguire cited "critical investigative failures,"
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such as overlooked blood pattern evidence that indicates there may have been two people bleeding at the murder scene and a trail of diluted blood drops that the defense claims contained a mixture of DNA from Norton's wife and Johnson.
On the morning of July 22, 2006, when the killing occurred, Norton took the couple's three children -- an infant daughter and two young sons -- in his wife's car to a friend's house. One of the two sons eventually told police he had heard his mother screaming in the early morning and saw his father with her in the apartment.
Both testified in the first trial and are expected to take the stand a second time.
The prosecution claims he fled the scene of the murder he committed, while the defense maintains he discovered his wife dead and left because he knew he would be the prime suspect.
In witness testimony Monday, Norton's history of beating his wife was corroborated by family members and police.
Charene Mack, the victim's mother, recounted a 2003 domestic abuse incident in which her daughter was dragged out of bed in the middle of the night and beaten until her eyes and face were so swollen that her jaw couldn't close. Mack, a registered nurse, said a police report was filed, but her daughter didn't want to testify against Norton because he promised to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and get his life on track.
The prosecution submitted enlarged police photos of Norton-Mack's bruised face as evidence.
Also Monday, a juror was excused because he had made an Internet search that led him to a story about the case.
Norton is being held without bail. Maguire said the trial may last about five weeks, with witness testimony resuming today.
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