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Morton attacker described as 'big monster with big moustache'

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UPDATED at 3:45 p.m. with information about the check made out to victim Christine Morton.

The transcript of a taped police interview conducted 11 days after Christine Morton’s 1986 murder includes an intriguing description of Morton’s attacker as a “big monster with a big moustache.”

Norwood, Mark A. dob 03-29-54.JPG

Police mugshots of the man charged Wednesday with Morton’s murder, Mark Norwood, taken in 1980 (right) and recently (below), show that one of his most prominent features is a thick moustache, though it must be noted that neither image shows how Norwood appeared in August 1986, when Morton was killed.

Norwood also is tall, listed in arrest records dating from 1975 to 2008 as being 6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3 and weighing between 170 and 157 pounds.

In the police interview transcript, Christine Morton’s mother, Rita Kirkpatrick, recounts a conversation she had just finished with Eric, the 3-year-old son of Christine and Michael Morton.

It quickly became apparent that Eric witnessed the attack on his mother, Kirkpatrick told Williamson County sheriff’s Sgt. Don Wood.

In chilling detail, Kirkpatrick recounted the conversation.

“Mommy’s crying. She’s - stop it, go away!” Eric said.

“Why is she crying?” Kirkpatrick asked.

“Because the monster’s there. He hit Mommy. He broke the bed,” the boy replied.

“Was he big?”

“Yeah,” Eric said.

Mark Norwood mug recent.jpg

Christine Morton was beaten to death in her bed, and Eric also described other crime scene details, including a blue suitcase found atop her body. Michael Morton spent almost 25 years in prison for the murder until his release last month after recently discovered DNA evidence pointed to Norwood for the crime.

Thus far in the Morton saga, news reports and legal briefs have focused on what Eric said next.

“Was Daddy there, Eric?” Kirkpatrick asked.

“No. Mommy and Eric was there,” he said.

“So, Sgt. Wood,” the grandmother concluded, “I’d get off the domestic thing now and look for the monster and I have no more suspicions in my mind that Mike did it. I have had.”

She also advised Wood to search for the “big monster with a big moustache.”

The eight-page transcript plays a key role in another aspect of the case - accusations that Morton’s prosecutors deliberately withheld evidence to ensure a guilty verdict in 1986.

The transcript surfaced in 2008 after Morton’s lawyers requested investigative records under the Texas open-records law. It was not given to Morton’s trial lawyers despite a well-known legal requirement that prosecutors turn over evidence that is clearly favorable to the defense.

Another potentially significant detail can be found in the Oct. 29 deposition of Mike Davis, a Round Rock lawyer who, as an assistant district attorney, was second chair in the prosecution of Michael Morton.

Morton lawyer Gerry Goldstein directed Davis’ attention to a $20 check that was made out to Christine Morton but cashed nine days after her death. The check was apparently cashed at a Green Acres liquor store on Burnet Road just south of U.S. 183, which closed in 1995 but was 2.5 miles from Norwood’s onetime residence on Justin Lane.

Exhibits filed with the deposition show Christine Morton’s flowing signature, which is nothing like the scrawled “Chris Morton” on the back of the $20 check.

Davis told Goldstein that he did not recall learning about the check before Morton’s trial. Christine Morton’s relatives, who provided the money as a gift for Eric, informed Williamson County sheriff’s investigators about the check. Agency files contain no information about whether the tip was followed, Morton’s lawyers have said in court filings.


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