What the jury has heard so far in the Anne Norris murder trial
Anne Norris's first-degree murder trial is an unusual one, in the sense that the 30-year-old woman has admitted to killing Marcel Reardon.
What jurors will have to decide when the final arguments are eventually made is, was Norris criminally responsible?
Norris killed Reardon on May 9, 2016, by hitting him a number of times in the head with a hammer.
Jurors also know that she placed his body under the outside steps of Harbour View Apartments, and got rid of the hammer by putting it in a backpack and tossing that into the harbour.
Through the weeks, the 12-person jury has heard both the Crown and defence cases, and is expected to hear rebuttal evidence from the Crown when court resumes Monday morning.
Here's a recap of the trial so far.
Opening statements and 1st witnesses
"As the Crown said, this is not a whodunit. There is no doubt that Ms. Norris caused the death of Marcel Reardon," defence lawyer Rosellen Sullivan told the jury in her opening statements.
"The question to ask is 'Why?'"
Norris left the Waterford Hospital on May 6 and moved into Apartment 307 at 91 Brazil St. Three days later, Reardon was killed, and Norris would be arrested on May 13.
The first witness for the Crown took the stand Jan. 22, Day 1 of the trial.
Shawn Pumphrey had also only just moved in to Harbour View Apartments when he went outside and discovered Reardon's body.
Unknowingly, Pumphrey would later befriend the man's killer.
He described the young woman as a pleasant, well-brought-up, vulnerable girl who, more than anything, he was worried about.
Superintendent and lead investigators
On the second day of the trial, the Crown brought in the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officer and two paramedics who responded to the scene for their brief testimony.
Then Jack Huffman, the superintendent of the apartment building, told the court about the "extremely nervous" woman who showed up to the building with nothing but garbage bags of clothes and a teddy bear.
Huffman told the court he felt extremely bad for her, given she had nothing in her apartment, so he got her some couch cushions to sleep on, and a blanket to cover the window.
Const. Ryan Pittman, the RNC's lead investigator in the case, also entered video into evidence that showed Norris's movements the night she killed Reardon.
On Day 3, jurors watched several more hours of video, this time showing Norris's arrest.
Watch a brief summary of that video in the player below.
Witnesses with Norris before, after killing
On Day 4, jurors heard audio from three 911 calls made May 7 and May 8 about Reardon.
Defence lawyer Sullivan also entered multiple complaints made by Norris to police, all allegations of either sexual of physical assault.
Later, jurors heard from Jessica Peach and Kevin O'Brien, who were with Norris and Reardon on the night of May 8, and went with Norris to her apartment in the early morning hours of May 9 — after she had killed Reardon.
Peach was the friend who loaned Norris the blue L.L. Bean backpack that would be used to dispose of the hammer.
O'Brien told jurors that when Norris tossed the backpack into the harbour, she was adamant they stay until it sank.
Photo exhibits
To wrap the first week of the case, defence Sullivan cross-examined O'Brien about statements he made to police through the course of the investigation.
Also on the stand was Const. Cynthia Crocker of the forensic identification unit, who responded to the scene at Harbour View Apartments.
Crocker took the photos of the exterior of the scene, where Reardon's body was found, and described for jurors what they were looking at in the photo exhibits.
Another backpack with hammers
When the Crown's case resumed on Day 6 of the trial, Const. Pamela Pike took the stand. She was the forensic officer who photographed inside Norris's two apartments, as well as the backpack recovered from the harbour.
The hammer used to kill Reardon was entered into evidence this day, and jurors each were given the hammer — inside a plastic bag — to hold and observe.
Staff at the St. John's Native Friendship Shelter, an emergency housing centre where Norris was living in April 2016, also took the stand.
They described Norris's changed behaviour through early 2016, as well as a backpack she placed in the dumpster, the contents of which worried them enough to call the police.
Walmart employees describe 'odd' behaviour
Several employees of the Walmart on Topsail Road took the witness stand on Day 7. Two of them were working on May 8 — the night Norris stayed after closing hours, browsing the aisles and eventually buying a hammer and a knife.
The other two employees were working May 13, and testified that they had spent a lot of time following Norris around Walmart.
Unbeknownst to those workers, there was a unit of surveillance officers also in the store, and the team of four would arrest Norris and escort her out. Those officers, who can't be named, also took the stand in Supreme Court on Day 7.
Crown wraps case with chief medical examiner
Dr. Simon Avis, Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical examiner, was the last witness to be called in the Crown's case on Day 8 of the trial.
Avis went through his autopsy report findings, explaining that, given the extent of the injuries, it was impossible for him to tell the exact number of blows to Reardon's head.
"One of the most damaging injuries I've seen," Avis told the court, after outlining that he's done likely thousands of autopsies since becoming the province's medical examiner in 1996.
Norris's dad takes the stand
On the ninth day of the trial, Gary Norris took the stand as the first witness for the defence, outlining years of his daughter's mental illness.
He described her as an empathetic and energetic child, but in her 20s her mental health took a dark turn.
Norris filed a police complaint in 2011, alleging historical sexual abuse by a coach when she was a teenager. After a few months of police investigation, her family became concerned for her mental health, and asked that the case be suspended. The investigation has been suspended ever since.
Jurors were also shown a selection of weapons that Gary Norris found under his daughter's bed on multiple occasions: a BB handgun, a knife and a baseball bat.
Emotional testimony from her ex
Brian Constantine was the defence's next witness. He first met Norris when she was 14 and he was 15; as adults, they dated for years.
Constantine's testimony proved to be emotional for Norris and her family.
He walked the court through what he described as her deteriorating mental health, how she accused him of raping her in her sleep and then, in 2016, showing up to his home and accusing him of the same thing.
"My heart broke for her," Constantine told the court.
Day 10 also saw the start of testimony from Dr. Kellie LeDrew, the psychiatrist with the PIER — Psychosis Intervention and Early Recovery — program who would see Norris multiple times from 2012 until 2016.
'Odd' and 'unkempt'
LeDrew explained that her program accepts patients who are showing first symptoms of psychosis. Within a few months, she had diagnosed Norris with bipolar disorder with psychotic symptoms.
Over the next two days, LeDrew would outline what she described as Norris's delusional beliefs — being assaulted by her boyfriend, her parents poisoning her food, people breaking into her home and assaulting her in her sleep.
On the stand, LeDrew reviewed video footage of Norris buying the hammer on May 8, describing Norris as unkempt and her behaviour as odd, compared with the young woman who showed up to her sessions.
Norris not a psychopath, psychologist says
LeDrew's testimony would wrap up on the morning of Day 12, and jurors then heard from Randy Penney, the registered psychologist who did a two-day assessment of Norris in December.
This marked the first day the court heard Norris's version of events the night she killed Reardon.
Penney said Norris was not a psychopath and, on the night she killed Reardon, saw the man as a threat.
"She stated she was certain she would die that night. She believed he would come in and murder her in her bed."
Dr. Ladha last defence witness
Penney did his assessment at the request of Dr. Nizar Ladha, the division head of forensic psychiatry at Eastern Health, who was asked by Norris's defence to do a psychiatric assessment on her.
Ladha's report would take three days of testimony to present, including cross-examination by the Crown and redirect by the defence.
His diagnosis was that Norris has schizophrenia, and at the time she killed Reardon was experiencing delusions.
"It is highly probable that Anne's uncontrolled frenzied violence that caused Marcel's death was as a result of her mental illness," Ladha said in his report.
Jurors back Monday morning
Because the case is surrounds whether or not Norris was criminally responsible at the time she killed Reardon, Crown prosecutors Iain Hollett and Jeff Summers are allowed to call rebuttal evidence.
The trial will resume on Monday at Supreme Court in St. John's.
Norris's trial started Jan. 22 and was originally slated for four weeks, but Justice William Goodridge told jurors they should expect to be sitting in court through the week of Feb. 19.
Follow along with the latest developments from inside the courtroom in our live blog.
