Jury selection begins for Anne Norris murder trial in St. John's
It was a striking image: a body covered by a red blanket on a stretcher being brought out from behind an apartment building in downtown St. John's.
Word spread quickly that the man on the stretcher, 46-year-old Marcel Reardon, didn't die of natural causes.
Nearly two years after Reardon's body was discovered on May 9, 2016, the woman accused in his death is heading to trial.
Jury selection begins Monday for Anne Norris, 30, who lived in the apartment building on Brazil Street.
Norris was arrested and charged with first-degree murder four days after Reardon's body was found underneath a set of concrete steps at the back of Harbour View Apartments. He did not live there.
Month allocated for trial
The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador has allowed a week for jury selection. Norris's trial is expected to start Jan. 22, and is slated for four weeks.
Defence attorneys Rosellen Sullivan and Jerome Kennedy will be representing Norris. Iain Hollett and Jeff Summers will present the Crown's case.
Karen Noel knew Reardon, and ran into him at a downtown soup kitchen about two weeks before he died.
"The meals were being served, and he actually came up and said, 'Karen, can I jump ahead of you? I haven't slept and I haven't eaten in three days,'" said Noel.
Reardon's sister-in-law, Lisa Maria Sharpe, described him as "a loving father of two boys, and would give you the shirt off his back."
"We are very broken over this," said Sharpe.
"I don't want anyone to think that Marcel didn't have a family. We loved him so much."
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