Justice is finally served in a decades-old Shasta County rape and murder. Monday afternoon, an Iowa man was sentenced to life in prison for the 1991 crime.
Monday afternoon finally marked the end of a decades long investigation into who killed Despina Magioudis.
The 53-year old was found dead in a Redding field in August of 1991. The case was cold for years until DNA linked it to a convicted rapist from Iowa.
Brian Norton lived in Redding at the time of the murder.
During trial, there was enough evidence that a jury convicted him in a little over two hours of deliberations.
On Monday, the judge enforced the harshest punishment, life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“He won’t be out there hurting anyone else, no longer a danger to the community, and it is gratifying that the jury did the right thing, and that they finally, even after the guilty verdict, now we have closure for sure and the defendant has life in prison where he belongs,” said Shasta County Deputy DA Eamon Fitzgerald.
Norton was up for parole in Iowa last February, but with this latest conviction, he will never be released.
His defense attorney said today, they did not dispute the murder charge, but were trying to prove the sex was consensual. That way, Norton would one day be eligible for parole.
Family of the victim said today, this murder has affected them every day for the last 21 years and they wish Norton would have been put to death.
