Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Judge: Not ‘a more despicable pair’

Randy Norris knew his stepson was headed down the wrong path when he began skipping school and quit his part-time job. But he never thought the teen would plot a bizarre murder-for-hire scheme that was supposed to leave him and his wife dead.

Norris on Tuesday asked a judge to send 18-year-old James Donald to prison for hiring a friend to stab him and his wife to death while the couple slept in their Henderson home on May 18.

"This is the young man who coldly planned to murder not only his stepfather but his own mother," Norris said. "A loving son couldn't try to have his parents killed."

Norris, who lost an eye in the attack, said he and his wife, Karla, have come to terms with the fact that they will never again have a relationship with their son.

"We've lost our son," he said. "Our son is dead to us and we grieve his loss."

The tearful testimony came moments before District Judge Donald Mosley sentenced Donald to 16 to 40-years in prison for his role in the attacks.

Christopher Robinson, also 18, who carried out the stabbings, was sentenced to 18 to 45 years in prison. They were also ordered to pay $76,719 in joint restitution.

The teens had pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts in the attacks, including attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder.

"I've been on the bench 24 years and I've seen rapists, murderers and child molesters," Mosley said. "'I don't know when I've seen a more despicable pair."

Prosecutors say Donald offered Robinson money to kill the couple in their home in the 700 block of Ashbury Park Street, near Boulder Highway and Lake Mead Parkway.

Randy Norris was stabbed multiple times in head, face and hands. Karla Norris was stabbed 13 times.

Prosecutor David Baker said a few kinks in the teens' carefully planned attacks might have saved the couple's lives.

When Robinson broke into the home and into the master bedroom, he expected to find the couple sleeping, Baker said. But only Karla Norris was in the couple's bed.

"She awakes to a man stabbing her in the face with a knife," Baker said.

Randy Norris, who was in the study at the time, heard his wife's screams and ran into the bedroom, where he tried to fight off the attacker. As Robinson began stabbing Randy Norris, Karla Norris hit Robinson with a table lamp and chased him out of the house, Baker said.

Robinson's lawyer, Michael Printy, said his client confessed to the crime immediately and even led detectives to the desert where he'd hidden his clothes and other evidence.

Randy Norris, who raised Donald since he was 5, said the teen had been in a downward spiral in the last four years, which included skipping class, lying and throwing wild parties.

"Selfish, lazy and self-absorbed," he said. "These words now describe the monster that has taken the place of our son."

Norris and his wife asked Donald to leave the house when he turned 18, he said, and Donald moved in with Robinson's family.

But Donald moved back home a few weeks before the murders, during which time he often asked the couple about their insurance policies and investments, Norris said.

"James stayed with us for three weeks, and all the time he was planning our murders," Norris said.

Norris said he'd only met Robinson a few times, but that he'd heard that Robinson bragged about his propensity for violence and often carried weapons. He called Robinson a sociopath.

"He was living out a fantasy of brutally carrying out injury or death on others," he said.

Norris said he and his wife are considering selling their home out of fear that the teens will return to "complete the job."

"We live in constant fear -- fear of noises, fear of the dark, fear of retribution," he said. "We have lost the comfort and the security of our own home."

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