MONTREAL — Lawyers for Luka Rocco Magnotta will ask a jury to declare the defendant not criminally responsible by reason of insanity in the murder and dismemberment of Chinese student Jun Lin.
“Mr. Magnotta admits the acts or the conduct underlying the five offences he’s charged with,” Superior Court Judge Guy Cournoyer told the 14-member jury Monday in his opening instructions at the murder trial.
“Your task will be to determine whether the Crown has proven whether (Magnotta) committed the five offences with the required state of mind.”
Insanity defense
The former small-time porn actor is the latest high-profile Canadian murder defendant to seek a not-criminally responsible verdict, following bus beheader Vince Li and child-killing cardiologist Guy Turcotte.
Crown lawyer Louis Bouthillier immediately pressed ahead with his case for convicting Magnotta, 32, of first-degree murder.
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