Murder trial of former Newfoundland athlete enters final phase this week
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Anne Norris appears an unlikely killer.
The former elite Newfoundland athlete, whose father was once the province’s top civil servant, admits she repeatedly hit Marcel Reardon in the head with a hammer early in the morning of May 9, 2016.
Her defence team includes a former provincial justice minister who argues she did it in the grips of a mental disorder and should be found not criminally responsible.
But prosecutors say Norris, now 30, planned a deliberate killing and then threw away the weapon — a 16 oz. Stanley hammer. She’d bought it at a Walmart a few hours before repeatedly striking Reardon’s skull as he lay passed out near her St. John’s apartment building.