Laytonville teen convicted in double slaying sentenced to life in prison

A Laytonville teen described by a Mendocino County detective as “pure evil” following a brutal, hate-fueled rampage in which he stabbed to death two members of the family he was living with and nearly killed two others was sentenced Tuesday to 71 years to life in prison.

The crimes committed by Talen Barton, 19, were so heinous that Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Ann Moorman said she would be writing a letter to the state corrections department so she can comment at his parole hearing, should he ever be granted one decades from now.

“I’ll see to it you never see the light of day,” Moorman told Barton.

“That’s great,” said Barton, who was shackled but still able to give the judge a thumbs-up.

Barton has indicated on multiple occasions that he believes he deserves to be punished for what he did the night of July 19. But he has remained largely emotionless in court and during interviews with sheriff’s detectives and psychologists, according to a comprehensive probation report filed with the court.

Barton in September pleaded guilty to charges that include two counts of murder and two of attempted murder. He also pleaded guilty to imprisoning two teen girls in the Laytonville home after the attacks and preventing them from phoning 911 by cutting the phone lines, according to the probation report. He later used a cellphone to call 911 himself.

Barton smoked marijuana and offered the imprisoned girls cookies while he waited for deputies to arrive, according to the probation report. He also asked the surviving victims how it felt to die as they struggled to live, the probation report stated.

The plea agreement allowed Barton, who has told sheriff’s investigators and psychologists that he was suicidal the night of the stabbings but afraid of death, to avoid facing a potential death sentence.

He told a psychologist he wanted to kill people “to know what it was like to die,” according to the probation report.

On the night of the attack, Barton took a foot-long knife from the kitchen of the family’s home, went into the room where his 17-year-old friend, Teo Palmieri, slept, put his hand over the victim’s mouth and cut his throat. Barton also stabbed Palmieri multiple times as he screamed and struggled, according to the probation report filed with the court.

Palmieri’s mother, Cindy Norvell, 54, a local physician, was stabbed in the neck when she entered the room in response to her son’s cries. She was critically injured but survived. Her husband, Coleman Palmieri, 52, was killed as he ran from his room to help his wife. He was stabbed nine times in the neck and body, according to the report. Norvell’s brother, Theodore Norvell, 52, who was visiting from Newfoundland, also was stabbed in the neck and critically wounded.

The crimes were so atrocious, and Barton was so “self-satisfied” and unemotional, that one of the detectives interviewing him later wrote he felt he was encountering “pure evil” and hoped to never see Barton released from prison, according to the probation report.

“He is an absolute monster,” Detective Clint Wyant said in his investigative summary.

Barton had been taken in two years ago by the family he attacked, following an attempted assault on his previous foster mother, who had rescued him from nomadic, drug-addicted parents around the age of 8, according to the report.

He told investigators he hated the former foster mother, Denise Shields, and wished he could have killed her as well.

“Oh f--- yeah, I would have” killed her, he reportedly told investigators.

The Palmieris were warned by several people not to take in the troubled teen. They included Barton’s former foster mother, his probation officer and Barton himself.

“You guys are really gonna regret ever bringing me into your home,” he told Cindy Norvell, according to the probation report.

Investigators in their summary sketched a portrait of a deeply troubled young man but did not pinpoint a single factor or motive for what fueled the deadly rampage.

Palmieri told investigators he was feeling suicidal but was afraid of death and wanted to kill someone to find out what it would be like, according to the probation report. His actions during the rampage seemed to support the statement.

“What does it feel like? Does it hurt?” Barton reportedly asked the surviving victims as they lay bleeding and fighting for their lives.

But he also said he was angry with Teo Palmieri, whom he found annoying and who recently had prevented Barton from attending a party in Willits.

“Nobody deserved what I did to them, but I’d simply lost my patience and decided that night to remove the thing that annoyed me most: Teo,” Barton wrote in a letter - now filed with court documents - to a friend following his arrest.

“What was my motive? Truly, simply hatred” caused by “strife and petty squabbles,” Barton wrote.

Barton also has said Teo Palmieri - described by teachers as brilliant and facing a bright future - was privileged and wasting his life, an allegation for which Barton took some of the blame. Barton, who reported smoking marijuana daily, indicated Palmieri smoked pot because of him, according to the probation report. He also alleged Teo Palmieri once tried to attack him.

“I decided not to deal with that little s--- again,” Barton wrote.

Barton said he didn’t like Coleman Palmieri because he thought he was judgmental and a useless electrician. But he described Cindy Norvell, one of the town’s only two doctors, as a saint and said he hadn’t intended to hurt her.

Barton also expressed anger that the family seemed “perfect” and, while they invited him into their fold and were generous with their time and money, he never felt he belonged.

He became tearful during an interview over the fact he was unable to feel the unconditional love the Palmieri family had given him, according to the probation report.

Psychological exams found that Barton suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder from his early years living with drug-addicted parents and step-parents. Mental health examiners suspect he was exposed to methamphetamine while in his mother’s womb. Barton also alleged he was once sexually abused by one of his mother’s friends.

Barton frequently expressed self-loathing to psychiatric evaluators and sheriff’s investigators, according to the probation report. Scars on his forearms showed that he had burned himself with his marijuana joints. He said he’d initially planned to kill himself and take others with him because he believed in reincarnation and believed they’d all be together again, the probation report states.

But, despite his many emotional problems, psychiatric evaluations found Barton was not psychotic when he attacked the Palmieri family.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MendoReporter.