Roy Lewis Norris, who along with crime partner Lawrence Bittaker kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed four teenage girls and an 18-year-old woman in Los Angeles County more than 40 years ago, died in custody, state prison officials announced Tuesday.
Norris, who had been serving a 45-year-to-life sentence, died of natural causes at 8:40 p.m. Monday at California Medical Facility, a male-only state prison medical facility located in the city of Vacaville in Solano County, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was 72.
Norris and Bittaker went on their five-month killing spree in 1979. Norris was on parole at the time after having served time for a San Diego County conviction for assault with a deadly weapon and rape.
The two were responsible for the deaths of Lucinda Lynn Schaefer, 16, on June 14, 1979; Andrea Joy Hall, 18, on July 8, 1979; Jacqueline Doris Gilliam, 15, and Jacqueline Leah Lamp, 13, on Sept. 2, 1979; and Shirley Lynette Ledford, 16, on Oct. 31, 1979. The bodies of Schaefer and Hall were never recovered.
Norris pleaded guilty to all counts — four counts of first-degree murder, one count of second-degree murder, two counts of forcible rape and robbery — and testified against Bittaker. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
Norris was sentenced on April 28, 1981. He had been in state prison since May 8, 1981.
At his second parole suitability hearing last March, he was denied parole for another 10 years and would not have had another hearing until 2029.
Bittaker was found guilty by a Los Angeles County jury of all 26 counts against him — five counts of murder, five counts of kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, rape, oral copulation, sodomy and being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to death on March 22, 1981, and died at San Quentin State Prison last Dec. 13.