MONTREAL (AFP) ― A former Canadian porn actor admitted at the start of his trial Monday to killing and dismembering a Chinese student, but his lawyer blamed the gruesome crime on mental illness.
The court heard that Luka Rocco Magnotta, 32, has admitted to the underlying facts in the case, including killing 33-year-old Lin Jun.
But he formally pleaded not guilty to first degree murder, committing indignities to a body, harassing Canada’s prime minister and other charges that could see him jailed for life, if he is convicted.
The jury must now consider his state of mind at the time of the offenses, and whether or not he is criminally responsible.
The defense said it would present medical files and expert witnesses to demonstrate the accused’s long history of mental illness, while the prosecution said it would show the crime was premeditated and not the act of a lunatic.
“Whether Mr. Magnotta is exempt from criminal responsibility will be the matter for your deliberations,” defense attorney Luc Leclair said in opening remarks to the jury.
Magnotta is accused of using an ice pick to fatally stab Lin in May 2012, before sexually abusing and dismembering the man’s corpse, and then posting a video of the heinous act online.
Days after the killing, Montreal police discovered the victim’s torso in a suitcase by the trash outside an apartment building along a busy highway.
Lin’s severed hands and feet were sent in the mail to federal political parties in Ottawa ― one of the packages was addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper ― and to two schools in Vancouver. The head was found in a Montreal park months later.
Magnotta fled Canada, but was arrested in Germany in June 2012, following an international manhunt, and extradited. He was arrested in a Berlin Internet cafe, after stops in France and elsewhere in Germany.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
