David Nordstrom accuses Scott of killing 6
David and Scott Nordstrom faced each other yesterday in an emotionless family reunion with one brother accusing the other of six slayings.
David Nordstrom testified that his brother and another man, Robert G. Jones, are responsible for last year's robberies at the Moon Smoke Shop and Tucson Firefighters Association Union Hall.
As the state's chief witness, David Nordstrom said he was the getaway driver in the smoke shop robbery and both Scott Nordstrom, 30, and Jones, 27, confessed to him their roles in the union hall slayings.
When a prosecutor asked him what he thought as he heard gunfire in the smoke shop, David Nordstrom simply said, "People were dying."
David Nordstrom, 28, spent more than five hours testifying yesterday in Scott Nordstrom's trial in the two smoke shop slayings and four union hall killings. Scott Nordstrom and Jones, who goes to trial in March, could face the death penalty if they are convicted of murder.
The younger Nordstrom is scheduled to return to the witness stand this morning.
The brothers rarely made eye contact yesterday, with David Nordstrom turning his chair away from Scott Nordstrom when the jury left the Pima County courtroom for breaks. The brothers' parents and stepmother watched silently in the audience.
David Nordstrom agreed to testify against his brother and plead guilty to an armed robbery charge after prosecutors dropped two counts of first-degree murder related to the smoke shop robbery.
He admitted yesterday that he lied repeatedly to police detectives after his January arrest to avoid implicating himself and and his brother in the slayings.
Harley Kurlander, one of Scott Nordstrom's attorneys, has argued that David Nordstrom, a convicted felon, is one of the killers who turned in his brother to save himself.
David Nordstrom testified that the day of the smoke shop robbery, he was with his brother and Jones when Jones broke into a car at the Tucson Medical Center and stole a gun.
After taking the gun, the three were heading down Grant Road in Jones' truck when Jones suggested they rob the smoke shop, 120 W. Grant, David Nordstrom said.
David Nordstrom said that although he protested, his brother agreed to rob the store.
"He (Scott Nordstrom) told me to drive and it was just going to take a second," David Nordstrom said.
David Nordstrom said he waited in the truck while his brother and Jones went into the store and opened fire.
"Were you scared?" prosecutor David White asked.
"Yeah," David Nordstrom said.
"Why didn't you leave?" White queried.
"Because my brother was in there," David Nordstrom said.
Jones and Scott Nordstrom came running back to the truck and they left the parking lot, David Nordstrom said.
Thomas Hardman, 28, and Clarence W. Odell III, 47, were killed in the smoke shop robbery, while a third man was shot in the face.
David Nordstrom said that the night of the June 13, 1996, union hall slayings, he was at the house he shared with his father and stepmother.
Sometime after 10 p.m., Jones woke him up by coming into his bedroom unannounced and turning on the lights, he testified.
Jones had a strange look on his face, appearing "real pale-like," David Nordstrom said.
Then Jones told him about what had happened at the union hall, David Nordstrom said. He did not go into details about what Jones said.
David Nordstrom said that the next day, when his brother came to pick him up for work, he confronted his older brother about what had happened.
"He told me he walked into the fire hall, grabbed the bartender, took her in the back and told her to open the safe," David Nordstrom testified. "She told him several times she couldn't open the safe. . . . He kicked her in the face and then . . . shot her."
David Nordstrom admitted he helped his brother and Jones dispose of the two guns used in both robberies.
The weapons were tossed in a pond southeast of Tucson, he testified.
Killed at the union hall, 2264 E. Benson Highway, were bartender Carol Lynn Noel, 50, and customers Arthur "Taco" Bell, 54; his wife, Judy Bell, 46; and Maribeth Munn, 53.
David Nordstrom said he went to police with information about the two robberies because he felt bad after watching the victims' families plead for help in a Christmastime news broadcast.
"I knew who did it," he said. "I wasn't saying anything at the time. It was getting to me."
Kurlander spent about an hour yesterday hammering away at inconsistent statements David Nordstrom made to police the day he was arrested.
David Nordstrom didn't deny repeatedly lying to police or threatening not to cooperate if he didn't receive reward money.
In his first interview after his arrest, David Nordstrom lied about not being involved in the smoke shop robbery and never mentioned his brother.
He confessed to his and his brother's involvement only in subsequent interviews. Even in those sessions, he didn't admit he knew how the second gun used in the robberies was obtained.
David Nordstrom maintained yesterday that the second gun was "borrowed" by Jones from one of their friends.
The gun's owner has told police that David Nordstrom stole it from her.
He also admitted that he violated conditions of his home arrest by doing drugs, drinking, associating with felons and possessing a gun. He was on home arrest after serving time in prison for felony theft. He also has been convicted of burglary and forgery.
Kurlander is set to continue questioning David Nordstrom this morning at about 10:30 a.m. before Judge Pro Tem Michael Cruikshank of Pima County Superior Court.
