Newport News man convicted of robbing, killing 62-year-old man in home

A Newport News man was convicted of killing a 62-year-old man during a robbery at his Harpersville Road home on Memorial Day two years ago.

In a three-day trial in Newport News Circuit Court, a 12-member jury found Andrew Thomas Norton, 38, guilty of second-degree murder in the slaying of Bryce Edward “Ed” Hinkle on May 30, 2016.

The jury recommended Norton be given 48 years in prison for the crime, Newport News prosecutors said.

Hinkle — who ran a lawnmower repair business, “Mr. Ed’s Lawn Mowers,” out of his house — was a well-known figure in the neighborhood, just north of Peninsula Catholic High School. Norton was a drifter who had friends in the area.

Home security camera footage from outside Hinkle’s home captured a man — who prosecutors said was Norton — going into the house before 11:30 a.m.

“During the morning of Memorial Day, video surveillance showed Norton pushing his way into the home, partly disguised by a bandanna, hat and jacket,” according to a news release from the Newport News commonwealth’s attorney’s office.

Neighbors saw Norton running to a car parked a block away, across a field, prosecutors said. One neighbor suspected a theft, followed the car and got its license plate number, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office said.

The neighbor then went back to the house to check on Hinkle. He found him dead on his living room floor, shot twice in the torso. “The contents of Hinkle’s wallet were found scattered on the floor,” prosecutors said.

Getting the license plate number proved a crucial lead. Police found the car the next day at a movie theater parking lot, with Norton in the car, prosecutors said. The car’s owner later admitted that he and Norton drove to Hinkle’s neighborhood the day earlier, with Norton at the wheel.

The car’s owner testified this week that Norton talked about committing a robbery, and came out of Hinkle’s house with a credit card and revolver that he didn’t have before he went in, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office said.

Norton’s attorney, Eric P. Korslund, argued that Norton was the wrong man — that the man on the surveillance footage wasn’t him.

“There’s no dispute that the picture captured the assailant,” Korslund said of a frame grab shown to the jury. “There’s no dispute that the man in that picture killed Mr. Hinkle. But what was in dispute was who was that person.”

Korslund highlighted the fact that a tattoo on Norton’s left hand wasn’t visible on the man on the surveillance footage. He also said police never recovered the gun used in the killing and didn’t have DNA, fingerprints or other forensic evidence linking Norton to the crime.

Korslund also said that when the car with Norton and the car’s owner stopped at an ATM later on the day of the killing, another unidentified man was also in the back seat. The car’s owner said he didn’t remember who that was, Korslund said.

The 12-member jury had the option of finding Norton guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or acquitting him of the charge. After deliberating for about three hours Wednesday, they found him guilty of second-degree murder. They also convicted him of robbery and two gun charges.

At a sentencing hearing Thursday, the jury recommended Norton get 48 years in prison: 30 years for murder, 10 years for robbery and eight years on the two gun charges.

Hinkle had one daughter and four grandchildren, and also left his mother, brother and two sisters. His daughter, Jessica May Barton, 38, of York County, told the Daily Press Friday that her father began working brick masonry for his father at age 13 in West Virginia, and “was a mechanical genius.”

“He was a hard-working man,” she said. “He worked for everything he had, and he pinched every penny he could. His money came from the spring and the summer, so he made it last so he could get through to the next season.” At the same time, she said, he was also a generous man and gave to charity.

In a home safe that Hinkle used to hold valuables, Barton said, he also kept keepsakes. “He had every birthday card and every Father’s Day card I or my children ever gave him, and every picture I ever drew him,” she said. Also in the safe, she said, was “hair from my first haircut,” and a napkin on which she wrote her first word, “milk.”

“This tore me up,” Barton said of the killing. But she called the trial outcome a fair one. “It’s the best I could have expected,” she said. “I feel that in today’s society, this is fair.”

The case was prosecuted by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorneys Amy Pyecha and Christina Brady. Circuit Court Judge C. Peter Tench will sentence Norton on Sept. 14.