James Phelps and Timothy Norton were charged with the murder of Cassidy Rainwater, with Norton explaining how he helped Phelps murder the woman he claimed had stolen from them and how they attempted to hide the body.
A Missouri man will spend the rest of his life in prison after pleading guilty to murdering and dismembering the body of a 33-year-old woman in 2021. He believes he deserves to die.
Timothy Norton’s guilty plea followed the Alford plea of James Phelps, who allegedly helped with the crime — though Norton’s story has Phelps more of the instigator.
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An Alford plea is an agreement where a criminal defendant pleads guilty while maintaining their innocence, per Cornell Law School. After his plea, the judge sentenced Phelps to life in prison without the possibility of parole, with Norton receiving the same sentence on Tuesday.
In exchange for pleading guilty to the first-degree murder of Cassidy Rainwater, the Dallas County court judge dropped charges of first-degree kidnapping and abandonment of a corpse.
Rainwater was last seen alive in July 2021 and reported missing on August 25, according to the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, as reported by People at the time. Police immediately spoke with Phelps that same day, who claimed she’d been staying with him, but had left a month prior.
Less than a month later, on September 16, the FBI received a tip regarding photos of a partially-clothed woman matching her description confined to a cage on Phelps’ property. Additional photos showed the being eviscerated and dismembered on a gantry cane commonly used to process deer.
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Police subsequently found human flesh inside a freezer at Phelps’ home, gruesomely dated 7/24, and skeletal remains on an adjoining property. All of these remains were identified as belonging to Rainwater by DNA testing and the crime lab.
Police also found photos of Rainwater caged and bound to the crane on Phelps’ phone, per Law & Crime. There were also text messages between Phelps and Norton that authorities say detailed them planning her murder.
Norton confessed to the murder, per the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office. In a statement, per People, they reported that he “told FBI agents that Phelps had him come over while Cassidy was sleeping told FBI agents that Phelps had him come over while Cassidy was sleeping [on] the living room floor, so he had easy access to attack Cassidy.”
“Norton stated, after entering the house, he held Cassidy’s legs down while Phelps strangled her and placed a bag over her head,” the statement continued. He described it to local news station KY3 after his court appearance by saying that things “just kind of happened” and the whole situation “went sideways.”
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“The next thing I know, he was choking her, and things were going sideways,” Norton told KY3. “If you looked into his eyes, that would have been the last thing you know I wanted to do was cross him at that point in time. I know he’s got a temper.”
In the initial statement, Norton explained that “he and Phelps took a short break before carrying her body outside.” He then confirmed the use of the gantry, saying, per the statement, that “Phelps bound her” to it and “began evisceration and dismemberment of Cassidy’s body.” Norton then said he helped carry the body into Phelps’ house and put her in the bathtub.
After his Tuesday court appearance, Norton told KY3, “I deserve to die, and I am ready for that. It’s not right to take life. Everybody harps me. You know, I’m a monster of a monster monster.”
He said that he’s still feeling numb about the whole thing, just as he felt through his court appearances. “Maybe later tonight I’ll– when I go to sleep, I’ll cry,” he told the news outlet.
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