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Work Release

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Escaped Inmate Gets Life Sentence in St. Pete Killings

Michael Scott Norris pleaded guilty to shooting two men to death inside a St. Petersburg home last fall after he escaped from a Pinellas County work release center, the Tampa Bay Times reports.

The man accused of escaping from a Pinellas County work release center, then breaking into a St. Petersburg home and killing two men working inside, pleaded guilty to murder Monday and was given a life sentence, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Michael Scott Norris, 36, was immediately sentenced to life in prison, the Times reports. Norris, described as a serial burglar by authorities, had been staying at the Goodwill-run Largo Residential Re-Entry Center on U.S. 19 near Whitney Road and working at a downtown St. Pete restaurant.  According to the St. Petersburg Police, Norris left the center Sept. 30, stole a gun from an ex-girlfriend in St. Petersburg, then broke into a home in the Historic Kenwood neighborhood, where he shot Bruce Johnson, …

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