COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County man was found guilty Wednesday of killing another man before dumping his body in a dumpster with his remains packaged inside a box, the district attorney's office said.
The jury found 54-year-old Garfield Norris guilty of murder, concealing the death of another, theft by taking and other offenses in the 2021 murder of James Creighton, an AT&T employee for more than 20 years. Norris was convicted and sentenced to life without parole, according to the DA.
On Oct. 9, 2021, Cobb County Police responded to the 100 block of Chastain Meadows Court in Kennesaw after they received calls about an awful-smelling box that was found inside a dumpster behind a business complex.
Detectives said that after they cut into the package they described as "deeply wrapped," they saw what they believed to be human flesh. The Cobb County Medical Examiner's Office was called to the scene where they confirmed it to be the remains of Creighton. The box contained layers of plastic, tape, cardboard, a dog tether and ratchet straps, according to a release from the DA's office.
The medical examiner's office said that no cause of death could be determined during the autopsy due to the state of the body -- other than determining it was a homicide.
The investigation into Creighton's death began after his coworkers and friends immediately believed something was wrong after he didn't show up to work, as they said he hadn't missed a single day in 20 years. Creighton's friend tracked his phone's last known location which came up in the Kennesaw area.
Creighton had previously worked with Norris, as the now convicted murderer was his only known associate who lived in Kennesaw, according to the police investigation.
After police looked into Norris, they found out that he had been in possession of Creighton's BMW just hours after he had vanished. Video surveillance showed that Norris took multiple, hourslong trips to a storage facility with the BMW. Detectives said they later found that Norris had looked up what police can do during a missing person's investigation.
When police interviewed Norris' wife, she told detectives that she had previously smelled of a foul odor. Once police received geolocation data, they discovered that Norris had made four trips to the site where he dumped Creighton's body in a matter of two weeks, according to the DA's office release.
“James was generous to a fault. He went out of his way to help this defendant and in return this defendant maliciously murdered him and threw him in a dumpster,” Senior Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Green said. “This defendant spent countless hours wrapping James up and multiple weeks harboring his dead body. This sentence ensures he will die in prison for his heinous actions.”
Norris' sentence also contained an additional 23 years and 12 months which are set to run consecutively to his life without parole sentence.
