Defence claims Magnotta not criminally responsible due to mental state

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More than two years after the horrific Canadian murder whose details repelled and transfixed the world, the man on trial for the crime is admitting he committed the offence but arguing he was mentally unhinged at the time.

Luka Rocco Magnotta rose behind a protective glass enclosure in a Montreal courtroom Monday and, in a feeble voice, repeated "not guilty" five times to the set of charges including first-degree murder in the slaying and dismemberment of Chinese university student Jun Lin.

The plea sets up the defence strategy for the trial, expected to last up to two months. Abundant evidence to be presented for the Crown links Mr. Magnotta to the death of Mr. Lin in May, 2012. The defence will pivot on Mr. Magnotta's state of mind.

Defence attorney Luc Leclair told jurors that numerous psychiatrists will give testimony showing Mr. Magnotta had a history of mental ailments and was diagnosed with schizophrenia since the age of 19 – a condition that also afflicts his father.

Mr. Leclair walked through a short, chaotic history of Mr. Magnotta's life in the years leading up to the killing. He saw psychiatrists, was committed to a mental ward in a Miami, Fla., hospital, confronted a Toronto reporter over allegations he was dating notorious killer Karla Homolka, and was on the run from animal-rights group PETA over videos he made of killing cats.

Just a month before Mr. Lin died, Mr. Magnotta was assessed by a psychiatrist in Montreal but left without a clear diagnosis, Mr. Leclair said. "Probably if it had been done differently, we wouldn't be here," he said.

All told, Mr. Leclair said, he should be exempt from criminal responsibility in Mr. Lin's death, due to his state of mind. "Mr. Magnotta has admitted the physical acts for each of the offences," Mr. Leclair said in explaining his case. "But there's the mental part … the defence will be focusing on that."

The arguments came on the first day of a trial unfolding under the intense gaze of media, as well as members of Mr. Lin's own family.

Mr. Lin's father, Lin Diran, flew in from China and followed proceedings on a TV screen in a small room adjacent to the courtroom. His translators and lawyer explained testimony and carefully placed stickers on the screen so he could avoid seeing his son's body parts. Speaking through the family lawyer, the father said he was there because he wanted questions answered, including: "Why did it happen?"

Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer and lawyers have warned jurors repeatedly that evidence produced at the trial would be graphic and disturbing. The warning was not without merit.

As the Crown's case opened, a Montreal police technician outlined the contents of a suitcase and series of garbage bags left outside the low-rent apartment building in Montreal where Mr. Lin was found dead. The catalogue included a headless human torso, bloodied beddings, a power tool, pieces of human limbs and a dead dog.

Each item was methodically photographed and shown to the jury, whose members appeared not to flinch.

Prosecutor Louis Bouthillier will be building his case on a foundation of forensic evidence, including DNA. Video-surveillance footage at Mr. Magnotta's apartment before Mr. Lin's death also shows the two men entering the building together. "These images are the last images of Mr. Lin alive," Mr. Bouthillier said.

The prosecutor told jurors they would be shown a video posted by Mr. Magnotta online. In a new, unsettling disclosure, the Crown revealed that the first 53 seconds of the 10-minute video – shot a week before Mr. Lin's death – shows another man bound and lying on Mr. Magnotta's bed, alive. The rest of the video shows Mr. Lin, bound and dead, on the same bed.

Mr. Bouthillier zeroed in on the notion of planning and premeditation, fundamental in a first-degree murder conviction. He argued that Mr. Magnotta planned Mr. Lin's murder six months in advance, speaking to a British journalist in London in late 2011, then following up with an e-mail a few days later. "It is our position that this e-mail makes it clear that Mr. Magnotta was planning to kill a human being and that he was going to make a movie of that killing," Mr. Bouthillier said.

Soon after Mr. Lin's death, parcels containing human hands and feet were mailed to federal parties in Ottawa and to two schools in British Columbia.

Mr. Magnotta left the country after Mr. Lin's death, triggering an international manhunt that ended when he was arrested June 4, 2012, in a Berlin Internet café. In addition to first-degree murder, Mr. Magnotta faces charges of committing an indignity to a body; publishing obscene material; criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament; and mailing obscene and indecent material.