Suspect in Laytonville double slaying enters not guilty plea in Mendocino County court

A Laytonville teen on Tuesday pleaded not guilty in Mendocino County Superior Court to multiple murder and attempted murder charges in connection with a brutal rampage that left two members of a family dead and two others critically injured.

Talen Barton, 19, is accused of getting a foot-long knife from the family’s kitchen just after midnight on July 19, going into the room where his good friend, Teo Palmieri, 17, was sleeping and stabbing him to death. He is alleged to have killed Palmieri’s father, Coleman Palmieri, 52, when he responded to the attack. Teo Palmieri’s mother, Cindy Norvell, 54, a local physician, and her brother Theodore Norvell, 52, who was visiting from Newfoundland, Canada, with his daughter, were critically wounded.

Barton, a former foster child, was living with the family at the time of the attack.

Mendocino County public defender Linda Thompson spoke for the defendant as about a dozen mostly Laytonville residents, including Barton’s older brother, Royal, looked on. Barton smiled while talking to his attorney and other inmates sitting near him but cast his eyes downward and frowned as he walked past the people attending his hearing. He wore a lime green jail jumpsuit, indicating potentially unpredictable behavior, according to jail officials.

His brother and most of the other hearing attendees declined to be interviewed, but several indicated they were there to support both Barton and the Palmieri-Norvell family.

“I still don’t understand how he could ever do something like this,” said Jesse Atkinson, who attended Laytonville High School with Barton and Palmieri, who friends described as brilliant and facing a bright future had he lived. An incoming senior, he ran track at Laytonville High, was a member of the school’s mock trial team and participated in a monthly public radio talk show called “YouthSpeaksOut!”

Atkinson, meanwhile, described Barton as someone who always smiled and gave her hugs when they met.

“He was always incredibly sweet to me. That’s why I’m shocked,” Atkinson said.

The daughter of Barton’s former foster mother traveled from Los Angeles to show support for Barton and the Palmieri-Norvell family. Kristal Rose said Barton was sweet and smart but she believed he also was damaged by the emotional, physical and sexual abuse he’d allegedly suffered during the first seven years of his life while living with his biological mother and her boyfriends.

“I just think he had a lot of demons,” Rose said.

Denise Shields, Rose’s mother, said she was Barton’s foster mother for 10 years before she was attacked by Barton, who allegedly tried to hit her with a weight. That’s when Teo Palmieri lobbied his parents to let Barton live with them, according to Shields. They took him in and treated him like a son, she said in previous interviews.

Barton had become increasingly withdrawn and depressed before the alleged attack on Shields, Rose said. She said his emotions took a dark turn after his biological mother made contact with him several years ago.

Rose said she visited Barton in jail Monday night but he did not reveal any motive for the bloodshed last month. Sheriff’s officials have said they don’t have a motive for the killings but that Barton had told at least one person that he wanted to kill someone.

Rose said Barton told her this week that he had been feeling suicidal and said he’d told several people about his feelings but no one took him seriously.

“He said he just intended to take himself out,” she said.

Norvell’s family did not attend the hearing. Cindy and Theodore Norvell have been released from the Santa Rosa and Redding hospitals to which they initially were admitted, hospital officials said. Details about their conditions were not available Tuesday.

Cindy Norvell has taken a yearlong medical leave from the town’s health clinic, where she worked. She and her daughter plan to stay with family in Newfoundland for a while, clinic officials said. Theodore Norvell is a professor of computer engineering at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Barton has been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, eight special allegations, including using a knife to commit the offenses, and a special circumstance related to multiple murder charges.

The charges carry the potential for a death sentence, but Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyster has not yet decided whether to pursue such a sentence.

A preliminary hearing for Barton is scheduled for Sept. 16.

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