Not long after she rode in a convoy of pickup trucks that terrorized a black family's birthday party in Douglasville in 2015, Kayla Norton told a friend that she didn't want to caravan anymore. She said the episode had taken an ugly racist turn and "that ain't me," according to court documents.
Norton was sentenced last week to serve six years in prison for her part in the Douglasville incident. Her partner, Jose "Joe" Torres, was sentenced to serve 13 years in prison for leveling a shotgun at party goers and threatening them. The two have three children, all younger than 9.
Evidence in the case includes messages back and forth between Norton and a friend.
“I love riding and I’m all about doing it for the right reasons,” she said in one message, apparently referring to the Confederate flag as a symbol of heritage. “But I don’t agree with going around calling people (racial slur) at all .. That ain’t me.”
“Kayla and Joe are not white supremacists like they are being painted to be,” Ryan said. “Things happened that shouldn’t have and it just got blown up. Now their kids have no parents.”
In other messages, Norton seemed concerned about whether the members of the convoy had their stories straight. Witnesses said she was standing behind Torres yelling racial slurs at party guests as he pointed the gun at them.
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