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Deputies' pursuit of suspect leaves region buzzing

Norman McKenzie is suspected of three killings, kidnapping, armed robbery, carjacking and car theft.

By JOHN FRANK AND ELENA LESLEY
Published October 7, 2006

INGLIS - Fueled by drugs and hell-bent on not getting caught, Norman Blake McKenzie went on a week-long crime spree through two states before he was caught Thursday hiding in a grove of Palmetto bushes near the northern Citrus County line, according to authorities.

It started Sept. 28 in southern Georgia, where the 42-year-old Gainesville man is suspected in an early morning murder, and ended along the Cross Florida Barge Canal with a high-speed police chase.

Along the way, McKenzie is suspected of two more killings, an armed robbery and kidnapping, two carjackings and a string of car thefts.

On Friday, the charges began stacking up and the tales of the crime spree spread through the state.

Citrus County Sheriff's deputies charged McKenzie with stealing a vehicle, fleeing police and resisting arrest. Investigators said he was under the influence of drugs when they found him.

He is being held without bail at the Citrus jail.

In St. Johns County, where Thursday's manhunt began just after 12:30 p.m., McKenzie was formally charged with two counts of murder in the deaths of Randy Wayne Peacock, 49, and Charles Frank Johnston, 64. They were found dead in their home off Palmo Fish Camp Road, a mobile home community south of Jacksonville.

St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar said at a news conference that McKenzie gave officers a wallet from one of the victims. He said the men, who were acquaintances of McKenzie, suffered from blunt force and sharp edge injuries.

"Mr. McKenzie was on his way here to commit homicide," he said.

A gold Kia found at the St. Johns crime scene linked McKenzie to a stabbing death of Charles James Dixon, 69, last week in Folkston, Ga., a small hamlet just across the Florida line.

Charlton County Sheriff Dobie Conner said he believes the motive for the stabbing was robbery and said the two men were "old acquaintances."

The same car was used in the abduction of a 52-year-old woman that same day in Putnam County, and law enforcement officials say McKenzie is a possible suspect in the case.

McKenzie next popped up on law enforcement's radar Thursday, after the car was found at the scene of the double homicide in St. Johns County.

McKenzie fled in his victim's Chrysler to Alachua County, where he ditched it and stole a red Camaro from a man who was fishing at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park.

When he wrecked the Camaro on Interstate 75 in Marion County, he flagged down a passing motorist and stole his red Acura Legend at gunpoint.

In Levy County, with police tracking him by the cars he stole, McKenzie carjacked a blue Toyota Camry from a woman with two kids in the car. Her 9-year-old son scrambled out of the car and she pulled her 3-year-old son from the vehicle before McKenzie drove off.

Police caught him about 5:10 p.m. after he crashed the Toyota and fled on foot.

"He was trying to get a car that we weren't looking for - a getaway car," said Sgt. Steve Maynard with the Alachua County Sheriff's Office. "We were literally minutes behind him each time."

The chase created quite a buzz for those who live near the Citrus-Levy county border and they were still talking about it Friday.

Kenton Lambert stayed home from work Thursday with an ice pack. The park ranger had aggravated an injured hip trying to flee from the area.

"I was on the mower when I seen a guy running like hell," he said.

"The next thing I knew, there was a bunch of cops around with M-16s, hollering to get out of the area," Lambert said.

Jereen Hall, a staff assistant with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was getting ready to go home when two pleasure fisherman came running toward her building near the search area.

"They'd just gotten out of their boat and the Sheriff's Office told them to come up here and lock the door," Hall said.

After the wildlife commission's officer filled her in on the details, Hall began watching the spectacle through the window. "It was just like on Cops," Hall said.

She told her story all day Friday as locals called her office, asking about the chase. "Everybody's curious," she said. "That's big stuff around here."

Times wires contributed to this report.John Frank can be reached at jfrank@sptimes.com or 860-7312.

[Last modified October 7, 2006, 06:42:10]