Man gets life for killing 2 in 2007

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — Norris Mills described details about the murder of Andrea Reynolds, 30, and her uncle, John Freeman Jr., 50, that the public didn’t know.

A lie-detector test indicated he committed the crimes.

And his description of where he went after killing the pair June 11, 2007, have been verified.

All of these are reasons why Mike Burnett, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, says there is “no doubt” Mills was the person who committed the double murder at a home on Front Street Southwest.

Mills, 42, most recently of Eagle, Utah, pleaded guilty Wednesday in common pleas court to the killings and was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after 20 years.

What Mills didn’t explain, however, is why he killed the two.

During his hearing before Judge W. Wyatt McKay, Mills apologized to the family of Reynolds and Freeman and said neither person had done anything to him to cause him to kill them.

Instead, he said the killings were the result of drug addiction and a great deal of “self-hate.” He didn’t describe a motive, Burnett said.

Mills walked into the Warren police station in December and told a police officer he committed the murders. Detectives then went to work to determine whether he was telling the truth.

It was something police also had to do in February 2007, when Mills surrendered at the Warren police station and said he had sexually assaulted children in Niles and Bazetta. A county grand jury later refused to indict him on the charges.

Burnett said the murder weapon — a 10-inch knife that Mills said he took with him to Las Vegas — was not recovered because it was inside a van he drove there from Ohio. The vehicle was later crushed for scrap when it was recovered by Las Vegas authorities, Burnett said.

Mills went from Las Vegas to Utah, where he stayed with his brother and turned to God, which caused him to confess the crime to his brother, Burnett said.

Mills and his brother came back to Ohio in December, spent a short time with Mills’ ex-wife in Cortland and then went to the police station to confess, Burnett said.

Among the details Mills gave authorities about the killing was that a chair was used in the attack and that Mills used a 10-inch knife to stab Freeman first and then Reynolds, Burnett said.

His description of the attack, including the angle of the knife thrusts, were accurate, Burnett said.

Police never released any information regarding the chair or the thin, long blade on the murder weapon, Burnett said.

Multiple evaluations of Mills’ sanity were conducted in the months since his arrest.