Defence lawyer rips DNA evidence in drug-dealer murder trial, says woman was 'framed'
Ashley Bourget has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Grant Norton
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The lawyer for the woman on trial for the murder of a drug dealer whose body was found in a barrel near the Thames River said her client was a “scapegoat” for other perpetrators, as the assistant Crown argued she orchestrated the July 2020 killing as revenge.
The lawyer for Ashley Bourget, who pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Grant Norton, a drug dealer with ties to a Hamilton crime family, concluded her closing remarks to the jury Thursday, questioning the value of the physical evidence collected from the crime scene.
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The Crown says Norton, 59, was tortured, beaten and stabbed to death in Bourget’s Adelaide Street South apartment on July 6, 2020. Police searched Bourget’s home on July 21, days after a plastic barrel containing Norton’s decomposing body was found near the Thames River, not far from Bourget’s apartment.
“By the time police were collecting evidence on July 21, they were not collecting from a pristine crime scene,” Mary Cremer said, adding many people had come in and out of the home in those 15 days between Norton’s killing and the police search.
“DNA was no doubt transferred, spread around to other areas of her home and other objects potentially.”
Cremer pointed to expert evidence heard at the trial that there’s no way to know when DNA was transferred to an object.
Police found blood on the walls and ceiling of the apartment and on a discarded couch, an aluminum baseball bat and a hatchet wrapped in plastic during a search of Bourget’s home.
The jury has heard Norton died of blunt force injuries to his head and stab wounds to his chest.
Bourget testified she had lured Norton to her home under the pretext of a drug deal at the request of an associate, Adam Wade. Wade told Bourget Norton owed his family a lot of money and there was a large bounty available to return Norton to Hamilton so he could take the fall for fraud charges.
Bourget testified Wade, armed with a gun, and other masked individuals arrived at her home shortly after Norton and forced their way in. She testified they were responsible for Norton’s death and she was ordered to stay out of the room and watch TV with the volume up.
Concluding her closing statement, Cremer pinned the blame for Norton’s July 2020 killing on other people, accusing them of planting evidence in an unsecured, outdoor trash bin on Bourget’s property to incriminate her client.
“When you consider the totality of this evidence, Ashley was used as the scapegoat,” Cremer said.
“Her home was taken over. Her home was used as a crime scene. . . . She was set up and she was framed.”
In the aftermath of the killing, Bourget, with the help of friends, had attempted to clean up the apartment, including painting the walls and ceiling.
Bourget testified she had cleaned off a metal baseball bat with water and bleach.
Cremer told the jury Bourget’s DNA on the handle of the bat “does not assist all of us, to say this is evidence that she picked up the bat and used it to kill Grant Norton.” The bat belonged to her, was in her house and something she had for years, Cremer said.
In her closing remarks that began Thursday afternoon, assistant Crown attorney Lisa Defoe said Bourget was not cleaning up in a panic but deliberately destroying evidence of the horrific crime.
Bourget was motivated by a “palpable and deep-seated” hatred for Norton, who Bourget alleges had sexually assaulted her three times when she was in her 20s, Defoe said.
“It’s not up to individual human beings to take the law into their own hands,” Defoe told the jury, adding the assertion by Cremer that Bourget was a hapless person set up by hardened criminals is not credible.
“She is not a dupe,” Defoe said. “She orchestrated this plan. . . . Ashley Bourget got revenge. Adam Wade got to rob Grant Norton.”
jbieman@postmedia.com
@JenatLFPress
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