Rickey Lee Norton -- whose 5-year-old daughter was found murdered in the basement of a Salt Lake City neighbor's home four years ago -- pleaded guilty Monday to drug possession and child endangerment charges.
Third District Judge Robert Adkins immediately sentenced Norton to 24 months probation and ordered him to obtain substance abuse therapy and continue mental health therapy.
The judge also gave Norton credit for four days in jail he had already served.
Norton, 33, was charged in September with one count of possession with intent to distribute, one count of purchase, transfer or possession of a firearm by a restricted person, and three counts of endangerment of a child, all third-degree felonies. He pleaded guilty Monday to two misdemeanors.
Salt Lake City police arrested Norton on Sept. 8 when they went to a West Jordan home where he was living to serve a narcotics search warrant.
Police found "several baggies" containing nearly 35 grams of marijuana, seven clonazepam pills, which are used to treat anxiety, a drug pipe and a .380-caliber handgun loaded with eight bullets, according to charging documents.
There were three children under the age of 6 in the home who had "potential access to drugs," charges state. Police have said those children might belong to someone with whom Norton was living.
Norton's daughter, Destiny, disappeared from her backyard near 700 South and 500 East on July 16, 2006.
For eight days, police, the FBI and hundreds of volunteers combed the city. Police found the girl's body July 24, 2006, in the basement of the next-door neighbor's home, then-20-year-old Craig R. Gregerson.
Gregerson pleaded guilty to capital murder and child kidnapping and is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole.
Norton later helped search for other missing children, including Hser Nay Moo, who was found dead in a South Salt Lake neighbor's basement in 2008.
Norton's ex-wife, Rachael, has said neither she nor Norton received counseling after their daughter's murder. The couple separated last year, Rachael Norton said in an interview at the time. She said she had filed a protective order alleging he had struck her.
