An Etna woman indicted for murder after she fatally stabbed her boyfriend three times in the chest because spirits told her to do it pleaded not criminally responsible on Friday.
Superior Court Justice Ann Murray accepted Heidi Tasker’s plea of not criminally responsible by reason of insanity after an hour of questioning and hearing the state’s evidence, saying Tasker “lacks substantial capacity to appreciate the wrongfulness of her criminal contact.”
Tasker killed Luke Norris, 41, on March 21. She told 911 dispatch that she stabbed Norris and that he was no longer alive.
Tasker, who said she is no longer hearing voices and was making the plea decision on her own, admitted that the state would be able to convict her. As part of the hearing, Assistant Attorney General Mark Rucci said the state would bring evidence of Tasker’s call to police dispatchers, a knife and her conversation with police after Norris’ death if the case were to go to trial.
Tasker told Murray that she chose to enter the plea instead of a not guilty plea because she would be able to get the mental health help she needs through the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Tasker has been receiving care and said new medication has made her more mentally stable.
Murray asked Tasker various questions about how she decided on the plea and if she understood that she would be under the Department of Health and Human Services’ care for an “unlimited term” before she accepted the plea to ensure Tasker was making the decision under her own will.
Rucci called Dr. April O’Grady, a previous state forensics examiner, to take the stand to speak on Takser’s mental health. O’Grady conducted multiple competence tests and a criminal responsibility test with Tasker in April and met with her before she entered the courtroom Friday, O’Grady said.
Tasker was able to make her own decision to enter the plea, O’Grady said.
Murray said she would recommend that Tasker be placed at Dorothea Dix Psychiatric Center for treatment because Tasker was previously admitted there.
Before the hearing ended, Tasker read aloud a letter she wrote saying that she understood how real her “mental disease” was and wished it would’ve stopped for her and Norris’ sake. She said she was begging for help from people and at hospitals but was unable to get any before she allegedly stabbed Norris.
Now that she will be able to get help because of the plea, she wants to be able to recover and care for her daughter, she said.
