Kill Or Be Killed

The ax fell upon both Todd Garton and Lynn Noyes on June 29, 1998. Todd was arrested in Anderson at 4:00 P.M. The sheriff’s investigators who arrested him had a declaration of arrest warrant, approved by the municipal court. Charges included an 187 (first-degree murder) and an 182 (conspiracy to commit murder). The amount $1,000,000 was issued for bail.

At the time of Todd’s arrest his Celtic cross necklace was taken into custody—the Celtic cross that Lynn Noyes had given him so many years ago. The officers also obtained an active pager from his belt. On the same day his house was searched again and several violent videotapes were seized. Of particular interest to the investigators were the tapes, Sniper, Pro Sniper and Ultimate Sniper. They also seized a calendar with the date May 20 x-ed out. This was the date that Norman Daniels had told them was the end of his window of opportunity to kill Carole Garton.

The official charges brought against Todd were:

Count 1—Murder 187. Todd Jesse Garton, on or about the 16^th day of May, 1998, did willfully, unlawfully, and with malice aforethought murder Carole Anne Garton, a human being.

Count 2—Murder of a Human Fetus. Todd Jesse Garton, on or about the 16th day of May, 1998, did willfully, unlawfully, and with malice aforethought, murder the human fetus of Carole Anne Garton.

Count 3—Conspiracy. (Note: this was a long count with several alleged Overt Acts.) Act 1—A conspirator obtained a hand gun.

Act 2—A conspirator provided an envelope containing photographs of Carole Garton and written materials to a co-conspirator.

Act 3—One or more conspirators communicated via computer e-mails.

Act 4—A conspirator shot and killed Carole Anne Garton.

Act 5—A conspirator shot and killed a fetus belonging to Carole Anne Garton.

There were also counts in the conspiracy to murder Dean Noyes, which included the possession of a key to his house and a photograph of him. There was also the count of constructing a homemade silencer.

Special circumstances at the bottom of the list brought the possibility of a death penalty. These were:

PC—Special Circumstance Murder for Financial Gain.

PC—Special Circumstance Multiple Murders.

Many miles away in Portland, Oregon, Lynn Noyes was arrested on the same day by Gresham policemen at her parents’ home. She was held in the Justice Center Jail on similar charges to Todd’s. And just like Todd, her bail was set at $1,000,000.

The Redding Record Searchlight recorded these startling developments. On July 1 it reported the headline HUSBAND ARRESTED IN SLAYING. In the article Sergeant VonRader explained that a person could be involved in a murder even if they weren’t at the crime scene at the time it occurred: “You can still be a principal, although you are not involved in the act.”

The reporter also contacted Carole’s father, Jim Holman. He told her that he already had suspicions about Todd’s involvement. Jim said, “I didn’t see any remorse from him at the funeral [memorial service]. He was calm and putting on a show. He has to be a monster to do something like this.”

The next day’s addition of the newspaper expanded its focus. Under the headline KILLING WAS LOVERS’ PLOT, OFFICIALS SAY, the newspaper depicted photos of Carole Garton, Todd Garton, Lynn Noyes and Norman Daniels. A little farther down the page was a subheading that said, The husband of a slain pregnant woman and his girlfriend could face the death penalty for allegedly plotting to kill their spouses for insurance money.

The article delved further into the whole twisted affair, revealing what investigators knew at this point. Shasta County sheriff Jim Pope said, “In my thirty-three years in law enforcement, I don’t know of a case similar to this.”

Pope also had a dire warning for anyone else connected to the crimes, “More arrests could follow.”

Of course there was still one more conspirator on the loose, Dale Gordon. But by now he was in another county.

With all the allegations, fact-finding and circumstantial evidence turning up, Dale Gordon had plenty to worry about. By early July, Todd, Lynn and Norman were all in jail and the investigators had tracked Dale down to neighboring Trinity County and were asking him questions. Gordon was now a firefighter working in Trinity National Forest at a place called Big Bar. The “bar” referred to an area along a river where gold was in abundance during Gold Rush days. It was rough work in the forest and rugged mountains of the area, but Gordon did his job well and his supervisors and coworkers there liked him. His main duties were that of a fire-suppression hand crewman. This involved using a shovel, chain saw or Pulaski on a fire line. The Pulaski was a combination pick and shovel especially designed for fighting wild land fires.

Dale Gordon realized that the investigators already knew a lot, so just like Lynn Noyes and Norman Daniels before him, he began giving a concoction of truth and lies. He hoped the truth would match what they knew. He also hoped the lies would lead them astray from what they didn’t know. But Dale was not a fabricator of stories like Todd Garton was. He admitted later, “I was under a lot of pressure. They were showing me pictures. Telling me things. I knew I was guilty and not a good liar. I began telling them the truth.”

On July 7, 1998, Dale Gordon was arrested, completing the net of all the conspirators. He was the last one to step in front of a police camera and have his mug shot taken—front and profile. Dale’s charges dealt with the attempted murder of Dean Noyes. Since he had not been involved with the murder of Carole Garton, there were no charges on that score.

Gordon’s arrest shocked his fellow forestry service workers. They knew and liked Dale. One of his bosses told a Record Searchlight reporter that Dale was a good worker and got along well with the others. The whole thing came as a shock. The article began by saying: Dale Gordon looks like your typical all-American boy.

Even at his arraignment at Trinity County’s historic old courthouse in the Gold Rush town of Weaverville, Dale Gordon lived up to this image. He politely answered all the judge’s questions with “yes, sir” and “no, sir.” He seemed truly abashed for being caught up in the whole sordid affair. His grief-stricken parents watched from the gallery. They never had a clue that their son was involved in such terrible crimes.

Soon thereafter, Dale said, “I was very upset. I felt betrayed and angry. Betrayed by my friends, Norman Daniels and Todd Garton. They knew every little detail. He [Daniels] told everything. He told all about what happened in Oregon, which was enough to send me to prison.”

Dale Gordon pleaded innocent to the charges against him.

On the same day that Gordon pleaded innocent, Lynn Noyes sent the judge in her case a handwritten letter from jail. It contained an unusual request. Lynn wrote I’m writing to plead with you not to allow cameras in the courtroom with the regard to my case. She said it caused her extreme difficulty in her pod (a secure area within a jail or prison.) She said she wanted to protect her family in Oregon and claimed that the adverse publicity would affect them. She concluded the letter by saying, I’m asking, if not for my own safety and mental health, then for my children, husband and family.

Her plea fell on deaf ears. The judge allowed newspaper reporters and television film crews into the courtroom during proceedings. And the husband she referred to was soon to be her ex-husband. Dean Noyes started divorce proceedings against her with inclusion that he would have sole custody of the children.

Two interesting developments occurred around this time concerning Todd Garton. He was under a lot of stress and perhaps lost some of his customary caution. In a recorded phone conversation with his mother, Pat, she told him that she couldn’t find a “little, tiny sticker” with I LOVE YOU, BABE on it. The sticker in question had been made by the label maker that Todd and Lynn had thrown into the Sacramento River. The same label maker that Garton had used to create the package he gave to Norman Daniels from The Company. If this sticker was discovered, it could lead right back to the label maker, one that Todd was trying to say he never owned. Garton wanted her to get rid of the sticker at all costs, and told her so. All of this was recorded by the investigators.

The second adverse occurrence, as far as Todd Garton was concerned, happened when Marshall Jones realized he had something in his possession from Todd that was “hot.” If he didn’t inform the authorities about it, he could be in hot water himself. Jones contacted the investigators and said they might want to check out some “stuff” of Garton’s that he had in storage for safekeeping. When the investigators checked these items, they discovered the “stuff” was a large silver-colored case. It was hot indeed. It contained a large sniper rifle, plastic gloves, cleaning equipment, communication devices and subsonic ammunition. All of these were items that had been used in the February attempt to kill Dean Noyes. And they all were the property of Garton.

As the summer wore on, the amount of evidence against Todd Garton kept multiplying. And two key players were about to arrive on the scene. These two would decide his fate.