Nearly five months after police say Michael Scott Norris escaped from a Pinellas County work release program and killed two gay men in a Kenwood house, the 36-year-old pleaded guilty to murder Feb. 25.
The guilty plea was part of a deal with prosecutors who will no longer pursue the death penalty in the case. The deal was approved by the families of Bruce Johnson and Arthur Regula, Norris’ victims.
Authorities say Norris stole a handgun from a nearby motel before entering the home in the Historic Kenwood Neighborhood of St. Petersburg on Sept. 30. He shot both men, who were renovating the home, and set the house on fire in a failed attempt to cover his tracks. He was caught shortly after.
Family members of both victims were at the hearing Feb. 25, as was Mitch Harrison, who owned the house where the two men were working the day of their deaths on Sept. 30. He read a prepared statement, in which he called Norris a “menace to society.”
“What you have done to me, to Bruce and Arthur, the families of Bruce and Arthur, the friends of all of ours, the neighbors of Kenwood and the whole St. Petersburg community as well as those you victimized in other counties in Florida, is one of the most heinous, cowardly, violent acts of crime that anyone can do to anyone,” Harrison said. “May you spend your days in jail growing old being reminded each and every day of what you have done.”
Following the hearing, Mitch told Watermark that the guilty plea and Norris’ immediate sentencing closed a chapter that had been open for nearly half a year. Norris received three life sentences, one each for the two murders and one for armed burglary.
“It’s part of the chapter closing,” he said.
Harrison said he can’t forgive Norris for what he did and admitted that initially he wanted the death penalty for the serial burglar-turned-murderer.
“He did something that was horrendous for no reason,” Harrison said. “He may have his reason, but none of us see his reason. Whatever that reason, it doesn’t mean a damn thing to me.”
With three life sentences and a nearly impossibility of parole, Norris will likely die in prison. And Harrison told Norris how he felt about the sentencing.
“I, as many others, are glad that you will spend the rest of your life behind bars where you belong,” Harrison told Norris at the hearing.
Since the murders and the loss of his home, Harrison has struggled to figure out why such a random act of violence would befall his friends and whether it means he should take a more proactive role in the community.
“This guy was loose on a halfway house,” Harrison said. “He wandered down the street and destroyed my life, took two lives and destroyed all the people they connected. I’m not political, but is there something I should do to change that?”
In December, the remains of Harrison’s old home were bulldozed, and he hopes to rebuild on the home in the very near future. In January, he spoke with Watermark about the crime and what he expected for 2013.
“I’m having to start my life over a little bit,” Harrison said. “The new home has a similar floor plan because it’s a plan that just works.”
It will take awhile to make the new house feel like home again, but Harrison is confident that he’s making the right decision to remain in St. Petersburg and to rebuild his home on the same lot where he lost two friends to tragedy.
“I can’t run from it. This is a great neighborhood and this has become my home,” Harrison said. “I’m ready for the next step. The house is gone and I don’t have to look at it now. I can focus on putting my home back together.”
He’s hopeful that he’ll be moving into his new home sometime this summer. But he also said that the last five months have not been about him, they’ve been about his friends.
“I don’t want this to be about me, I want it to be about the lessons,” Harrison said. “It’s about Bruce and Arthur, two individuals whose lives were taken for senseless matters. I can rebuild a home, but I can’t bring back my friends.”
