BANGOR, Maine — The jury-waived trial of a woman charged with killing her 2½-year-old daughter last year is scheduled to begin Monday at the Penobscot Judicial Center.
Leanna Norris, 25, of Auburn, formerly of Stetson, last month pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and waived her right to a jury trial. She allegedly drugged the girl, put duct tape on the her face and then suffocated her before attempting suicide herself.
Loh Melody Grenda died the evening of June 23, 2013, in Newport and her body was discovered early the next morning inside a car in Stetson at the home of the girl’s maternal grandfather, according to court documents.
Norris originally pleaded not guilty to intentional or knowing murder on July 5, 2013. She has been held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail since her arrest two days earlier when she was released from a psychiatric ward at a Midcoast hospital.
Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea, who is prosecuting the case, declined earlier this month to comment on the trial or what evidence she would present at trial to prove Norris knew right from wrong when she allegedly killed her daughter.
Repeated efforts this month to reach defense attorney Martha Harris of Bangor to learn how she would prove Norris is not criminally responsible for her daughter’s death were unsuccessful.
Norris is one of 17 parents or caretakers since 2005 who have been charged in Maine with murder or manslaughter in connection with the death of a child, according to statistics compiled by the Maine State Police. Three of them, including Norris, were mothers.
One mother, Karen Devin, 41, died with her son, Michael Devin, 12, in a murder/suicide on Aug. 19, 2009. The other, Pamela Henderson, now 50, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the death of her son, Zachary Henderson, 3½ months, on March 5, 2008, in Harrison. She admitted giving him a lethal dose of anti-anxiety medicine. The mother was sentenced to 22 years in prison with all but six years suspended and six years of probation.
Most often, the person responsible for the child’s death is a father, stepfather or the the mother’s boyfriend. Thirteen men have been charged since 2004 in connection with the death of a child since 2005. Another, Steven Lake, 37, committed suicide after killing his wife, Amy Lake, 38, and their two children, Cote, 13, and Monica, 12, on June 13, 2011, in Dexter.
The children killed by men, for the most part, were physically abused and under the age of 3. Since 2005, just four victims who died at the hands of men, including the Lake children, were over the age of 10.
In his 2006 book, “Why Mothers Kill: A Forensic Psychologist’s Casebook,” Geoffrey R. McKee classified mothers who had murdered a child into the following types: abusive/neglectful; psychotic depressed; retaliatory and psychopathic. Until evidence has been presented at her trial, it is not possible to know in which category, if any, Norris fits.
Some of the facts expected to be presented at her trial were outlined in an affidavit written by Detective Thomas Pickering of the Maine State Police and filed in connection with an application for a search warrant. It said that Norris drove her daughter to Durham Bridge Road in Newport about 8:45 p.m. June 23, 2013, and gave her “two or three syringes of Benadryl to make her go to sleep.”
Benadryl is an antihistamine that can be used as a sleep aid.
“Leanna Norris put black Gorilla [duct] tape on Loh Grenda’s mouth and nose; that Leanna Norris put a blanket over Loh Grenda’s face so she would not have to look at Loh’s eyes,” the affidavit said. “Leanna Norris said that she killed Loh Grenda; that Leanna Norris put her hand over Loh Grenda’s face and suffocated her.”
She then removed the duct tape from her daughter’s face, “so it would not look so horrible,” according to the document.
Norris then drove to a cemetery in Stetson “where she took pills and put tape on her face in order to kill herself,” the affidavit said.
Norris fell asleep but awoke and vomited and then called her father about 2:50 a.m. June 24 from the cemetery.
A few minutes later she pulled into her parent’s Pleasant Road driveway in Stetson, and her father found his granddaughter’s body in the front seat bundled in a blanket. He called 911.
The trial is expected to last five days. Superior Court Justice Ann Murray is expected to take the case under advisement and issue a verdict at a later date. There is no timetable under which she must deliver her verdict.
If convicted of murder, Norris faces between 25 years and life in prison. Norris would be committed to Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Augusta if Murray finds her not guilty by reason of insanity.
BDN writers Nok-Noi Ricker and Nick McCrea contributed to this report.