A man accused in a deadly shooting rampage in Maryland and Delaware believed his victims were space aliens trying to abduct his daughter, his attorney said on Tuesday at the start of his murder trial.
Allison Lamont Norman, 27, was in the middle of a psychotic episode and believed he was protecting his five-year-old daughter during the time he is accused of killing two people and wounding four others in Maryland and Delaware in April 2005, defense attorney Brendan O'Neill told jurors.
"He thought there were aliens everywhere," O'Neill said.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Norman in the slaying of Jamell Weston, 24, in Laurel, Delaware.
Norman also is accused in the shooting death of DaVondale Peters, 28, in Salisbury, Maryland, but that charge and others were dropped so the Delaware case could go forward. A Maryland prosecutor cited differences in the way the two states handle insanity pleas.
Both O'Neill and prosecutor Peggy Marshall told jurors that neither will dispute that Norman pulled the trigger.
"The issue in this case is what was Mr. Norman's mental condition, what was his state of mind, when he did these things," O'Neill said.
O'Neill told jurors they would hear seemingly far-fetched testimony that Norman stuck his head in a toilet, drank his own urine and ate his own feces after being arrested.
He was trying to "prove his worthiness" to get his family back, O'Neill said.
Marshall said Norman's state of mind would be the key issue and urged jurors to keep their own minds open.
The attacks began in Laurel, where Weston and another man were shot at an apartment complex, and a third man was shot at a nearby shopping center.
Investigators say Norman, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a handgun, then stole a car and drove about 20km to Salisbury, where he shot Peters, two other people and two dogs.
One of the Salisbury victims was left paralyzed and Peters was killed.
The girl Norman believed was his daughter, Donesha Sturgis, took the stand to testify on Tuesday. O'Neill said after court that Norman's girlfriend told him he was the girl's father, though there has never been scientific confirmation.
Sturgis, 7, told the court that the night before the shootings, Norman corralled her and her sisters in a corner of their apartment while her little brother was left alone in a hallway, screaming.
According to O'Neill, Norman believed that the screams of the children helped keep the aliens at bay, and would pinch them to keep them yelling.
"He tore down the curtains in the kids' bedrooms so he could see the aliens at night," O'Neill said.
Also testifying on Tuesday was Weston's cousin, Marcus Cannon, 20, who was wounded in the arm during the Carvel Gardens shooting.
Cannon said that after seeing Norman shoot Weston, he ran for safety as Norman turned the gun on him.
Marshall asked Cannon what he was thinking as he sought safety.
"That I was going to die that day," Cannon replied.
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