Former Warren man indicted in ’07 killings

A judge has ordered a psychiatric evaluation.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — A former Warren man who told police he killed a 30-year-old Warren woman and her 50-year-old uncle in 2007 has been indicted on murder and robbery charges.

Norris A. Mills, 42, most recently of Eagle, Utah, pleaded innocent Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to three counts of aggravated murder, one count of aggravated burglary and specifications that he is a repeat violent offender.

If convicted of aggravated murder, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

James F. Lewis of the Trumbull County Public Defender’s Office, Mills’ defense lawyer, asked that Mills be declared incompetent to stand trial. Judge W. Wyatt McKay ordered a psychiatric evaluation.

Mills walked into the Warren Police Department in December and said he was responsible for the deaths of Andrea Reynolds, 30, and her uncle, John Freeman Jr., 50, Warren police said.

Reynolds and Freeman were found stabbed to death in their home at 2631 Front St. S.W. on June 11, 2007.

Mills lived not far from Reynolds and Freeman on Front Street Southwest during part of 2007.

It was while Mills was living there in February 2007 that he walked into the Warren Police Department and talked of sexually assaulting children in Niles and Bazetta.

Police in both communities later charged Mills with raping juvenile girls, but a grand jury refused to indict him.

Mills faces the possibility of a more serious sentence if convicted of the murder and robbery because of a conviction in El Paso County, Texas, on Feb. 7, 1992, for aggravated robbery.

That previous conviction is the basis for Mills’ being charged with being a repeat violent offender, according to his indictment.

Judge McKay continued Mills’ $2 million bond and set a pretrial hearing for March 25.