BANGOR, Maine — Margaret “Maggie” Norris, the mother of an Auburn woman on trial for murder, said Thursday that when she was 16 years old she attempted suicide by taking pills — the same way Leanna Norris did after she allegedly smothered her nearly 2½-year-old daughter.
The mother of the 25-year-old defendant took the stand at the end of the fourth day of her daughter’s jury-waived trial after the prosecution had rested its case.
Norris of Auburn, formerly of Stetson, is charged with intentional or knowing murder. She has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Defense attorney Martha Harris of Bangor told Superior Court Justice Ann Murray that she was asking Margaret Norris, 46, of Stetson about a history of suicide and attempted suicide in relatives. Harris also asked the defendant’s mother if she had discussed the methods used by herself and other family members with her daughter.
In her opening statement, Harris said that her client suffered from severe depression, social anxiety disorder and a mood disorder on June 23, 2013, when she killed Loh Melody Norris, and is not criminally responsible for the child’s death.
Margaret Norris said that Leanna Norris was home nearly seven years ago when the then teenager’s younger brother attempted suicide with a gun. Margaret Norris testified that years ago her brother shot himself to death and a relative of Leanna Norris’ father, Steven Norris, 50, of Stetson, died of carbon monoxide poisoning when he ran a hose from the exhaust of his car to a window.
In recorded interviews played in court Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, Leanna Norris said she might have succeed in killing herself if she had tried running a hose from the exhaust into the car. Both her parents have testified that when she arrived at the house with her daughter’s body on the front seat of her car, Norris begged them to give her a gun so she could be with her dead daughter.
The defendant repeatedly admitted to investigators that on the evening of June 23, 2013, she gave her daughter three times the normal dose of an antihistamine, put duct tape over her mouth and nose, then smothered her with a blanket, according to trial testimony.
The mother then took the rest of the antihistamine and swallowed 200 Advil pills in a botched suicide attempt.
Norris allegedly killed her daughter less than 24 hours after the toddler’s father, Michael Grenda, 27, of Auburn, ended their relationship and threatened to seek full custody, according to testimony earlier this week.
To prove that her client is not criminally responsible for the toddler’s death, Harris must prove that Norris was so depressed she could not tell right from wrong when she killed the girl.
In January 2001, a Waldo County jury found Natachia Ramsey, then 26, of Rockland not criminally responsible in the death of her 4-week-old son, Hunter Macarthy Ramsey, on April 11, 1999. Ramsey pleaded guilty to manslaughter and admitted that she smothered her child, then slit her wrists in a suicide attempt.
During that trial, defense attorney John Pelletier of Augusta focused on the testimony of medical experts who were in contact with Ramsey in the days and months after the killing, according to the Bangor Daily News archives. The psychiatrists and psychologists all agreed Ramsey was suffering from deep depression in the moments leading up to her son’s death.
Ramsey had a family history of depression, according to the archives. Both her mother and grandfather had committed suicide while she was in her teens. Her marriage disintegrated, and her husband left her alone to care for her baby.
The experts testified that the depression had compressed and distorted Ramsey’s perception of reality to the point where she believed suicide was the only way out.
Mental health experts for the defense are scheduled to testify Friday.
Closing arguments most likely will not be presented until next month because of scheduling conflicts. The judge is expected to take the case under advisement and deliver her verdict later in the year.
If convicted of murder, Norris faces between 25 years and life in prison. She would be committed to Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in Augusta if Murray finds her not guilty by reason of insanity.
Norris has been held without bail at the Penobscot County Jail since her arrest July 3, 2013, when she was released from a psychiatric ward at a Rockport hospital.
BDN writer Walter Griffin contributed to this report.
To reach a suicide prevention hot line, call 888-568-1112 or 800-273-TALK (8255), or visit www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org.