By Andy Furillo
afurillo@sacbee.com

A Sacramento jury today convicted Daniel James Norman of first-degree murder in the April 20, 2008, killing of Wilbur Reynolds in his home in Foothill Farms.

Norman, 43, also was convicted of burglary in the break-in at the home of the 76-year-old victim, who died in a blaze that the defendant's partner set in the residence in the 5400 block of Rambler Way.

According to evidence in Norman's trial, he drove a parolee named David Hamilton to Reynolds' home the day of the killing.

Deputy District Attorney Anthony Ortiz said Hamilton then put Reynolds through "six hour of torture, six hours of hell" before Hamilton set the blaze in which the victim succumbed.

Hamilton was shot and killed by a Sacramento sheriff's detective when they came to arrest him at a Roseville motel the night Reynolds was slain.

The prosecutor said Norman, who was convicted on the theory that he aided and abetted a burglary that resulted in a homicide, used credit cards that Hamilton stole from Reynolds to buy methamphetamine for the two of them.

A taped conversation of Norman talking on the phone with friends on a county jail line after his arrest provided some of the critical evidence prosecutors used against him.

"I kinda maybe knew he was going to steal some (expletive deleted), but that's different, that's not murder," Norman said, according to a transcript of the conversation. "It's was supposed to be a straight run-in and grab a few things, then run out. That's what it was supposed to been."

Following nervous laughter, Norman continued, "It didn't work that way."

Reynolds suffered burns to 72 percent of his body after intruders beat him. Norman and Hamilton ransacked the victim's house in the 5400 block of Rambler Way.

Hamilton knew Reynolds through a woman the victim had taken into his home. Hamilton then became upset with Reynolds after the Foothill Farms man reported him to his parole agent for domestic violence.

"We're very proud of the sacrifice my grandfather made in stopping these men from being able to hurt anybody else," said Shuana Woodward, Reynold's granddaughter. We're proud he fought the fight he did."

Woodward also thanked Ortiz, the police and "anybody else who helped for the outcome of this."

Call The Bee's Andy Furillo, (916) 321-1141.