Maine’s highest court has upheld the 37-year sentence of an Auburn woman who suffocated her 2-year-old daughter after giving her a high dose of allergy medicine.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday upheld the sentence of Leanna Norris for the 2013 murder of her daughter, Loh Melody Grenda. Norris told investigators that she gave her daughter a dose of allergy medicine to help her sleep, then suffocated her.

The child’s body was found in June 2013 in a car in Stetson.

Her lawyer had argued that Norris was suffering from a major mental illness. The judge who presided over the trial last year rejected her insanity defense and found her guilty. The court ruled Thursday that the evidence supports that decision.


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