Killing not connected to mobster’s murder
Police say they have ‘mountain of evidence’ in businessman’s death
Homicide investigators say they know when and how mobconnected southern Ontario businessman Grant Edward Norton was slain, but they’re not saying — yet.
London police do say that Norton’s murder is not definitely connected to that of his former business partner, gangster Pat Musitano, who was shot to death in a Burlington parking lot in a July 10 killing that remains unsolved.
The lifeless remains of Norton, 59, were found in a wooded area of east London nine days later on July 19.
Norton and Musitano were both connected to illegal gravel hauling in the Hamilton area, but that business relationship isn’t the reason Norton was murdered, Det. Supt. Chris Newton of London Police said in an interview.
“There’s no connection whatsoever to the Musitano homicide,” Newton said, adding: “As you can imagine, that has been explored. Nor only by us, but by other police services.”
Newton said there’s a huge amount of evidence in the Norton killing, much of it from cellular communications, that police are studying before charges are laid.
“It’s a mountain of information,” Newton said. “The data that we have to pore over before we go to court is just so time consuming.”
Newton said investigators are confident charges will be laid soon for Norton’s murder.
“We do have very prominent suspect information and evidence to support that,” Newton said.
Norton was reported missing to police in Waterloo Region on July 12. He had been on the run from police after failing to appear in court in March to answer seven charges, including fraud, theft, uttering threats, conspiracy and obstructing a peace officer.
Those charges were laid after his June 2019 arrest by Niagara Regional Police in an investigation of West Lincoln business Havana Group Inc., which hauled soil from construction sites.
Norton and Musitano were partners with several others in Havana Group, which is accused of illegally dumping gravel in the Niagara Region and is also embroiled in a bitter dispute with truckers who say they have not been paid.
Much of the investigation into Norton’s murder has focused on a two-storey rental residence at 20 Adelaide St. S., about two blocks from where Norton’s remains were found.
Norton had been sentenced to two years behind bars in August 2016, after he was convicted of possession of property obtained by crime, possession of a substance for the purpose of trafficking and operating a motor vehicle while disqualified.
Musitano served prison time after pleading guilty in 2000 to conspiracy to commit murder in the 1997 murder of Carmen Barillaro of Niagara Falls.
A week after Musitano’s murder, someone painted the word “rat” on the Hamilton garage of Giuseppe Carmelo (Pino) Avignone, 59, a close associate who was with him at the time of his murder. Avignone was not injured in the attack that killed Musitano and wounded another man.