A Canadian jury is to decide if a man accused of fatally stabbing another man with a screwdriver before dismembering his body should spend the rest of his life in prison.
Accused "Canadian Psycho" killer Luka Magnotta spent months planning the May 2012 murder of Chinese student Lin Jun, prosecutors said, according to the Agence France-Presse. Magnotta allegedly stabbed the victim with a screwdriver, sexually assaulted Jun's body and then dismembered him -- and recorded and posted his acts online.
Jun's torso was found in a suitcase placed next to an apartment building's garbage. His hands and feet were mailed to politicians in Ottawa and to two elementary schools, AFP reported. The victim's head was found in a Montreal park.
Magnotta, who changed his name at least once, was dubbed the "Canadian Psycho" because music from the movie "American Psycho" was reportedly playing in the background of the video.
Though he admitted to killing Jun, Magnotta pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and committing indignities to a body among other charges. Magnotta's 11-week trial ended Monday and a Quebec jury is now deciding if he is guilty or "not criminally responsible" due to insanity, AFP reported.
Defense attorneys for the 32-year-old argued he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, which is not a mental disorder. He received medication for the schizophrenia but did not always take them, which would have left him "prone to relapse of his symptoms, which include paranoia; auditory hallucinations, fear of the unknown, etc.," according to a psychiatrist's 2005 testimony when Magnotta was previously convicted for fraud.
However, prosecutors presented evidence that Magnotta was acting and that his first diagnosis for schizophrenia was inaccurate, AFP reported. Prosecutors also noted a 2011 email Magnotta sent to a journalist investigating cat disfigurations indicating his intent to kill.
"Next time you hear from me it will be in a movie I am producing that will have some humans in it, not just pussies," Magnotta, born Eric Clinton Newman, allegedly wrote. "Once you kill and taste blood, it's impossible to stop."
After the alleged killing he fled to Europe and stopped in France and Germany where he was eventually arrested. He later told investigators he stabbed Jun because he thought he was a spy the government sent to kill him.
Magnotta will be sent to a hospital psychiatric ward if his insanity defense is accepted.
