Howard Christopher Pruitt Sentenced To 30 Years On Friday For The Murder Of Eddie Norton

HowardPruettOn August 17, 2011, Eddie Norton, 42, of Piedmont, Alabama was called by his girlfriend requesting that he come to talk to her at her residence on County Road 18 in Cherokee County, Alabama.

He arrived about 1:30 am and was met by his girlfriend outside her residence. As they were talking, the defendant, Chris Pruitt, who was 34 at the time, came walking out of the wood line where he had been hiding, armed with a .38 caliber revolver, and proceeded to shoot the unarmed Norton in the head as he was walking to his car.

Those were the essential facts provided by District Attorney Mike O’Dell during the guilty plea of Howard Christopher Pruitt before Circuit Judge Randall Cole Friday morning.

O’Dell was asked by the court to make a “showing” of the evidence expected at trial to prove the defendant’s guilt. “It is not uncommon for the court to make such a request,” O’Dell stated. “We had been preparing this case for trial for the past 4 years, so the facts and circumstances surrounding Eddie Norton’s murder were ingrained in my brain.”

Upon hearing the facts to be presented, Judge Cole found that there was sufficient basis to find the defendant guilty, adjudicated Pruitt guilty of the murder of Eddie Norton, and sentenced him to 30 years in the state penitentiary.

According to O’Dell’s statements in open court, Norton appeared to have been lured to his girlfriend’s house for the purpose of murdering him.

“He was called to come to this residence early in the morning under the pretext that he and his girlfriend were to ‘work out their problems,’” O’Dell stated. “Little did our victim know that his killer was hidden out of sight and was preparing to essentially execute him. And that is what he did. He came up behind him and shot him in the back of the head just above his right ear.

After murdering him, he got the victim’s girlfriend and her brother to help him load the victim into his own car. When they couldn’t get him into the trunk, they dragged him around to the passenger side and put him in the front seat.”

The evidence showed that Pruitt then drove off with the body and went to County Road 32 where he again dragged the body out of the car and into a field just off the road. He then covered it with limbs to hide it. Pruitt then drove to County Road 175 where he threw the gun into some thick brush. Finally, Pruitt drove the stolen car to County Road 8 where he set the car on fire and rolled it down a ravine just off County Road 8. He then proceeded to walk back to his home in Piedmont until an unaware driver picked him up on Highway 278 and gave him a ride to
Piedmont.

“The first break we got in this case was when an unknown person happened upon the burning car and was able to write down the tag number on a piece of paper that was left, under a rock, at the top of the ravine,” O’Dell said. “Law enforcement traced the tag number back to Eddie Norton. Although we may never know who did that, I am very grateful, because by the time law enforcement and fire personnel arrived at the scene, the vehicle was totally engulfed and the tag had melted completely.”

According to Sheriff Office reports, later that day Pruitt’s uncle called the Sheriff’s Office to report the killing at County Road 18.

According to the uncle, the defendant had admitted to killing Norton and wanted to borrow his uncle’s truck to dispose of his body. His uncle stated that he told Pruitt to “call the law.” Pruitt was subsequently arrested and charged was Norton’s murder. Investigators reported that Pruitt confessed to the killing and agreed to, and did, take them to where he dumped the body, tossed the gun, and burned the car.

“Once again we have the senseless killing of another human,” O’Dell stated. “Evidence demonstrated that the defendant had been drinking all day before the murder. Although the motive is not clear, it does appear that Pruitt was angry at Mr. Norton for the way he had been treating his sister. Whatever the reason, Pruitt now has a 30 year sentence in which he can contemplate the heinous nature of his acts.”

“This successful outcome would not have been possible without the outstanding work of our law enforcement officials, particular Sheriff Shaver and his investigators Bo Jolly and Tony Monroy, my office investigators Wade Hill, Josh Summerford and Gary Williams, ABI agent Brent Thomas, and Mark Hopwood of the JSU Center for Applied Forensics,” O’Dell said.

“I would also like to express my appreciation to Deputy State Fire Marshall Ray Cumby for providing his personal drone during the investigation. The photographs and videos proved to be an integral part of the demonstrative evidence we had prepared for trial. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the work of Beverly Daniel, E-911, who went back and retrieved all the 911 records and produced them for our use.”

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