MONTREAL – Luka Rocco Magnotta’s high-profile trial has ended with the jury finding him guilty of first-degree murder and four other counts in the slaying of Jun Lin.
The jurors deliberated for eight days before returning with the guilty verdicts.
The other charges were criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament; mailing obscene and indecent material; committing an indignity to a body; and publishing obscene materials.
Magnotta was seeking to be found not criminally responsible of the slaying by way of mental disorder, with experts testifying he was in a psychotic state the night of the killing and couldn’t tell right from wrong.
The Crown countered the crime was both planned and deliberate and that Magnotta’s behaviour and actions went against someone supposedly suffering from a disease of the mind.
As Magnotta had admitted to the physical acts, the jury’s task was to determine Magnotta’s state of mind and whether his acts were intentional, planned and deliberate.
The criminal case captured headlines worldwide in 2012 when the little-known porn actor and escort with an enormous Internet footprint became a household name after being linked to a horrific crime posted online.
His trial finally made it before a bilingual jury in Montreal, dominating much of the latter part of 2014.
On the murder charge, the jury had four options: find Magnotta guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter, or find him not criminally responsible by way of mental disorder.
The judge told the jurors in his instructions that if they deemed Magnotta not criminally responsible, that verdict should carry through to all five charges. He also suggested they tackle that issue first.
