Kill Or Be Killed

May 16, 1998, dawned with scattered clouds and a prediction of sun and showers later in the afternoon. All the inhabitants at the Garton residence on Adobe Road awakened and made various plans for the day. Todd Garton, Norman Daniels and Sara Mann were going to the gun show in Anderson. Dale had a job at the Thunderbird Mill in Cottonwood and had to report there. Carole was going to visit the maternity ward at Redding’s Mercy Medical Center with her friend Tracie Jones.

As Tracie said later, “We went to the Maternity Tea and Tour at Mercy Medical Center. We were both pregnant at the time, and she hadn’t been up to visit the maternity ward, so we went together. We met, actually, at the gun show in Anderson and then drove together to the hospital. We went on the tour. The tour started at ten or ten-thirty. It took about an hour. We went to lunch around noon. We talked about going shopping, but given the time, and the time I told the baby-sitter I would be back, we decided just to pick my kids up. We went to the baby-sitter’s house on the way back to the gun show, picked up the kids and went to the show.

“We went back there to trade cars. Traded cars with our husbands so that they could bring merchandise home that evening. I never saw her again.”

It was sometime between 1:00 and 1:30 P.M. when Carole dropped by the Anderson gun show for the second time and talked to Todd and Norman for a while. Todd was displaying camouflage wear for Rancho Safari. Marshall Jones had a table right next to his with guns. Norman Daniels was nervous and fidgety. He knew that Todd expected him to do the “job” today. He also knew that the window of opportunity, mentioned in the package from The Company, was running out. His recollection of what happened next became a litany of anxiety, fear and ultimate determination.

Daniels said later, “I made an excuse to leave the gun show with Carole because we had been watching videos the night before and I wanted to get them back. Also, I wanted to finish one of the videos that we did not get to watch. It was called Killing Time. It was a real cheesy assassin movie. It had been suggested [by Todd] this would be a good time, so I made an excuse to leave with her. I had the forty-four Rossi with me.”

Daniels had the Rossi in his holster. Apparently, Carole thought nothing of it because they were at a gun show and Norman, Todd and Dale were always carrying guns around. Since Carole was tired, she gave Daniels the key to the Jeep and he drove them both to the house on Adobe Road. No one was there except her and Norman.

Daniels continued his recollections. “We sat down and put the movie on in the front room. I was going to shoot her in the chair. I didn’t know if I could do it or not. There were several times that I was ready but didn’t do it. I had the pistol out one time and I was sitting as we were watching the movie. I had it under a blanket. Then something happened and I didn’t.

“She went back into the bedroom area. She changed her shirt and came back out and told me that she was going to lay down. I went into the bathroom and I was going to come out and do it. But I got paranoid and didn’t. Several times I had the opportunity and didn’t.

“I finished watching the movie. I rewound it and informed her that I was going to take the movie back to the store. She was lying on the bed. I took the Jeep and drove to Valley Video in Cottonwood.”

Frustrated by his timidity, Daniels drove to the Kickin’ Mule and bought $5 worth of gasoline. He went back and forth whether he should do the hit now or later. He didn’t want to do it at all. But the threats from Colonel Sean kept popping into his mind. He drove back to his house and decided he had to carry through on the hit. He changed clothing, somehow surmising that if he changed clothing, he would be less conspicuous when he went back to the Garton residence. He drove back on Fourth Street, crossed the Sacramento River at Ball’s Ferry Road and then onto Adobe Road. He stopped about fifty yards from the Garton house.

Daniels said, “I had left the back door open so I wouldn’t make any noise coming in. I thought of going in the back door and surprising her. I’d go through the field across the street. I was going to jump the fence and go around the field and come in through the back door. I got back there. There’s a fence that separates the BLM land and I was right at the gate corner.

“When I stopped at the fence, I could see the residence. I could see the back door and the back window. If she was there, I couldn’t see into the area, but she could see out. But I didn’t climb over the gate. I was nervous. I was afraid there was a weapon in the house. If she saw me coming over the fence, she would have a weapon. I’d been warned she would not hesitate. She would kill me if she knew her life was in danger. Todd Garton warned me. He warned me she was potentially dangerous.”

Angry and desperate now, Norman Daniels parked the Jeep right in front of the house. He said, “Not until I entered the house did I actually come up with a plan of what I was going to do. Carole was lying on the bed. I made an excuse for why I was all wet, because at the time I was going through the field, it had rained. So I explained that I had got out of the car and had to pee. It started raining and that’s what happened.

“I went back to the front room and shut the back door. I was nervous. I was pacing and running my hand through my hair, wondering if I could do it or not. I took the pistol out and cocked it so it would be ready to fire and I would not have to pull the trigger. Only squeeze it. There’s a difference in your accuracy when you shoot with the hammer back and the hammer forward. I put it in my left pocket so it would be covered by my jacket. And she would be on my right side, so she wouldn’t see the pistol.

“Finally it came to me, ‘Well, I’ll do it fast. I can get close to her.’

“I stood to the side of the bed as I was talking to Carole. The conversation was about Jack, which was her boss’s dog that she was baby-sitting for the week. She was lying on her right side.

“I thought about my son. I thought about my life and my family. I said to myself, ‘I’ve got to do this or I got to die. Now or never.’

“I turned around. I knew that I could get to the pistol without her knowledge. I had it in my hand and turned and fired at her.”

Carole saw the pistol in Daniels’s hand. For one split second she must have been startled and terrified. Norman Daniels was her friend. This couldn’t be happening.

Daniels said, “She covered her face. Both of her hands she crossed over her face. I shot her in the head. I thought it was above the left eye. She was still moving. She shimmied off the bed. She was attempting to get under the bed. I didn’t want her to suffer. So I continued to fire. I shot at her torso. I was aiming for the heart. I fired at her head again and then I shot at her torso. The last shot was at her head.

“After the last shot she was laying on the ground next to the bed on her left side. I immediately holstered the pistol and then left. All I remember is pulling the door shut before I left the house.”