BANGOR — A Superior Court judge has rejected an insanity defense and convicted an Auburn woman in the death of her 2-year-old daughter.

Justice Ann Murray issued her ruling on Monday, finding 25-year-old Leanna Norris guilty of murder a month after the end of her jury-waived trial.

Norris admitted to investigators that she had given her daughter, Loh Melody Grenda, a high dose of allergy medicine to help her sleep, then covered her mouth and nose with duct tape and a blanket. The body was found in June 2013 in a car in Stetson.

No sentencing date was set. The judge’s verdict in the case was issued four weeks after the prosecution and defense attorneys made closing arguments in the case.

Her attorney said Norris “could not see the world as it actually was.” But the prosecutor countered that Norris had “an appreciation of reality.”

According to an affidavit by state police Detective Thomas Pickering, released by Penobscot County Superior Court in July 2013, Norris told another detective that she had driven with the child to the Durham Bridge in Newport on the night of June 23, 2013.

Pickering said Norris admitted having given the child “two or three syringes of Benadryl to make her go to sleep” and then put black tape over the girl’s mouth and wrapped the child in a blanket before smothering the girl so she “would not have to look at Loh’s eyes.”

Norris then drove to a Stetson cemetery and took a bottle of Advil and put tape over her face in an attempt to kill herself, the court documents said.

She drove to the home of her father, who called 911. Responding police officers found the child dead.


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