Trial underway for Anniston man on kidnapping and robbery charges

Patriick Jason Norris

A trial began Tuesday for an Anniston man accused of kidnapping two women and then robbing, raping and shooting one of them in 2012.  38 year old Patrick Jason Norris,  was arrested Nov. 16, 2012, charged with kidnapping, robbery, rape and attempted murder.  Norris is on trial this week for the two counts of first-degree kidnapping and one count of first-degree robbery charges . The trial for his rape and attempted murder charges is set for Oct. 27 in Clay County, where those crimes are alleged to have taken place.  Prosecutors argued Tuesday that Norris drove to his former girlfriend’s Oxford home, where he placed a .22 caliber rifle in the bushes before driving to the Oxford Walmart, leaving his car there and walking back to her house, where he waited inside.  Norris is then accused of forcing his former girlfriend and her friend, Jennifer Houston, into his ex-girlfriend’s car at gunpoint and driving  the women to an Oxford parking lot where he forced them into his car. Houston was able to escape the vehicle as they drove down Alabama 21 by jumping from the moving car.   Prosecutors then allege that Norris then drove his ex-girlfriend to a remote area in Clay County, where he allegedly raped her twice and shot her in the neck. Norris was arrested at a roadblock later that morning.    Norris pleaded guilty in 2001 to raping a woman in 1999. His probation on that conviction was revoked Jan. 22 because of his latest charges. Norris is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for his 2001 conviction.

The trial is set to resume today.