Magnotta has pleaded not guilty to murder and is to stand trial in September Police had said he had been living out of his car since he returned to the city. Luka Magnotta's murder trial is set for Sept.
Although that date is more than two years after his arrest in connection with the death of Jun Lin, that is not an unusual amount of time for a high-profile murder case to reach the trial stage. Some have questioned why it takes so long for cases like Magnotta's to get to court. The key determinant in most cases has to do with judicial resources, rather than issues related to the defence or the prosecution.
Ottawa criminal lawyer Ian Carter told CBC News that the month delay between the preliminary hearing and Magnotta's trial before judge and jury is not unusual. A trial like Magnotta's "is normally set that far in advance because they need to find a courtroom and a judge. The Magnotta trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, a relatively big block of court time. The court facilities, the judge, the lawyers and the witnesses all need to be available at the same time, and there are always other trials in the queue competing for timeslots.
In the Magnotta case, his lawyer, Luc Leclair, had requested an earlier start date — April — but last week Justice Andre Vincent said September was the earliest possibility. There are others factors as well that play a role in setting the date. The starting point is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which states, "Any person charged with an offence has the right Section 11 of the Charter is also the one that says anyone charged should "be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
A defendant who is to be tried by a superior court judge alone or a judge and jury usually has the right to a preliminary hearing. Magnotta's wrapped up April 12 with an order to stand trial for first-degree murder and four other charges.
Carter says Magnotta's preliminary hearing happened relatively quickly. Where that does happen, sometimes, is in murder cases, with an argument over whether the charge should be first- or second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Leclair argued unsuccessfully that Magnotta should be tried for second-degree. However, Carter explained that the reality with preliminary inquiries is that, "In the vast majority of cases it's used by the defence as discovery-type process, to get information about certain parts of the crown's case," and to get an idea of how witnesses will perform in the courtroom. The Crown can avoid a preliminary inquiry by getting the attorney general to approve a direct indictment. The decision to do so is made unilaterally by the prosecutors and the defence has no ability to argue against it.
Last year, the Crown got a direct indictment in a terrorism case in which Carter is representing one of the accused, Misbahuddin Ahmed, who was arrested in In that case, the jury trial won't begin until April The availability of the lawyers for both sides, and the witnesses, is also taken into account when setting a trial date.
Once the available date for a judge and courtroom are known, the two sides usually work out which option to choose. Once the trial date is set, both sides have more work to do.
Although most of the investigative materials should have been handed over to the defence ahead of the preliminary hearing, both sides will study the transcripts from the hearing. The prosecution probably won't put forward its full case at the inquiry, and "it's a much bigger task doing it in front of a jury," Carter explains. The defence has to work out their strategy, line-up expert opinion, get extra evidence, and prepare to cross-examine witnesses, which Carter says will be different in front of a jury compared to the preliminary.
And it's likely there will be additional witnesses called. Compared to some other high profile murder trials in Canada, the expected timeline for the Magnotta trial appears to be about average. As a comparison:. For Robert Pickton, who was charged in in connection with the disappearance of dozens of women in Vancouver, it was four years, 11 months before his murder trial began. For the three accused in the Shafia family murder case, two years and three months would elapse between the arrests and the start of the trial.
Paul Bernardo was arrested in for the murders of school girls Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French. His trial began two years, three months later.
Magnotta's trial is set to begin two years, three months after his arrest. Most of the world first learned of Luka Magnotta on May 30, , when he was named as a suspect in a grisly Montreal killing involving the shipping of body parts to the headquarters of two political party.
But some online communities had taken notice of the man long before that. Over the years, Magnotta had littered the internet with information about himself — both untrue and true — using dozens of pseudonyms, all in an effort to attract the worldwide fame he craved.
Over time, friends, acquaintances and family members became concerned that something was amiss with the Scarborough, Ont. The following is a timeline of Magnotta's life, the troubling signs that emerged and how an online community tracked him down, based on exclusive interviews and information obtained by CBC's the fifth estate. He is the eldest of three kids. His parents split while Eric is still young. Newman later goes to live with his grandmother, Phyllis.
Newman is home schooled for a period of time; in one blog post, he later writes that it was because he was told the world is a dirty and dangerous place. However, for at least two years, from to , he does attend I. Former teachers and classmates remember him for his vanity and preoccupation with looks. He changes his hair colour often. Around or , Newman begins stripping at Remingtons, a nightclub in Toronto. By , he has appeared in his first two pornography films, both as a straight man turned gay.
The following year, he appears in at least two other pornographic films, including one where he appears as Jimmy — a name he would also adopt while working as a male escort.
He is charged with fraud. Initially, police allege he sexually assaulted the woman and videotaped it, but the Crown drops the charge before the case goes to trial. Newman's lawyer at the time, Peter Scully, now says that the decision changed the course of Newman's life "immeasurably, with huge ramifications to our society eventually. June Newman pleads guilty and is convicted of four fraud charges.
Before sentencing, Newman's lawyer shows the court a medical report revealing his client has "significant psychiatric issues. If you do not, your life is going to get messed up. Newman continues to appear in low-level porn films. Early in , Newman meets Barbie, a transgendered woman, and they begin dating. She recalls his apartment looking like a shrine dedicated to himself. In April, several months after meeting Newman, Barbie breaks up with him. That summer, Newman legally changes his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta.
March Magnotta files for bankruptcy, listing the cause as "illness, lack of employment and insufficient income to pay off debts. In the summer, he auditions for the reality show Cover Guy, telling the judges, "Some people say I am devastatingly good-looking.
In February of , he also tries out for the reality show Plastic Makes Perfect. I've had two hair transplants," he tells them. The Toronto Sun publishes a story by reporter Joe Warmington about how Magnotta had dropped by the newspaper's headquarters to deny online rumours he was dating notorious schoolgirl killer Karla Homolka.
The rumours were likely started by Magnotta himself. Magnotta continues to try to garner attention online, posting comments about himself to create rumours and then using other profiles to deny them.
Twice this year, he loses battles with Wikipedia to keep a page up about himself. He also posts an online escort ad under the alias Jimmy. One client posts an unflattering review describing him as cold and remote. Magnotta meets a year-old man in Toronto who ends up becoming his travel companion.
Together, they visit Russia, Italy and France. Henry, a fake name used to protect his identity, told the fifth estate they met at the Pickle Barrel restaurant located near Toronto's Yonge and Eglinton intersection. Fall of In , Magnotta's online postings get progressively darker. On his Facebook page, he posts a link to a video called, 3 guys 1 hammer that shows a man being viciously beaten to death. The video was not by Magnotta. The myth about Magnotta's relationship with killer Homolka grows.
In one posting about Magnotta and Homolka, the user — likely Magnotta — writes, "Luka is unable to live unless there is chaos in his life, it makes him feel as though he matters. Posted on Dec. Though the video is quickly removed from YouTube, animal activists learn of it. Soon after, Ryan Boyle, a former U. When the group goes astray in its search for the kitten killer, they believe that Magnotta himself anonymously went on a message board frequented by the group and posted pictures from the video with the face no longer blurred.
Magnotta asks whether any arrest warrants are pending on him. There aren't any. Early A new member online group, called the Animal Beta Project or the AB Project, emerges in early with the goal of stopping Magnotta before he kills again. He spoke to the fifth estate on the condition of anonymity. The amateur sleuths analyze the kitten-killing videos frame by frame.
They claim that furnishings and the kitten killer's clothing in the videos are the same as those in other images of Magnotta posted on the web. Though the secretive AB Project group discovers a wealth of information about Magnotta online, they struggle to track down his physical location. The AB Project had been using exif exchangeable image file data from pictures posted of Magnotta online that told them when and where photos were taken. One innocuous photo from October taken on a cellphone stamped with a GPS locator finally suggests to them that Magnotta was in Toronto.
The group contacted the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals with all their findings, who then reach out to the Toronto Police. The police open a file on Magnotta in February of Late November and early December A year after the original kitten-killing videos appear online, more videos are posted.
A man wearing a Santa hat is shown feeding a live kitten to a python. In another, a kitten is duct taped to a broom handle then drowned in a bathtub.
After The Sun in London, U. The paper has not asked about him and reporter Alex West describes the behaviour as "highly suspicious. The London police are notified but say it was outside their jurisdiction.
The project members then begin searching through their archive of Magnotta pictures looking for any that connects him to the city. One photo with unique streetlights catches their attention. The online sleuths begin systematically looking at Montreal intersections using Google's Street View and track the one in the picture to a neighbourhood in Montreal.
Around this time, Magnotta's online activity begins to accelerate with blog postings about necrophilia and sedatives. May , Over the course of two days, from May 15 to 16, repeated references are made online to a new video, 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick, that hasn't even been posted.
One reference depicts a person in a purple hoodie with a fist holding an ice pick. On one site, a user asks, "Where can I watch the 1 lunatic 1 ice pick video? After a flurry of online postings, Magnotta's online activity appears to go black for a few days. On May 25, a video titled, 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick, is posted on the web. It depicts a young male bound on a bed, initially alive and then lifeless. Then someone is seen repeatedly stabbing the corpse with an ice pick and dismembering the body with a knife.
There are also acts of necrophilia and cannibalism. Ottawa police later say they found a second package containing a hand. Montreal police confirm they're investigating a human torso found in a garbage pile in that city.
Montreal police say Luka Rocco Magnotta is wanted in the homicide investigation stemming from the body parts. He's been on their radar since the day before, and can be seen on surveillance video of his apartment building and a Canada Post outlet.
A video allegedly showing the murder and dismemberment of a man had appeared on a website days before. Police view the video for the first time this morning. Authorities identify the victim of the gruesome killing and dismemberment as Jun Lin, a Chinese national who was studying at Concordia University in Montreal. Meanwhile, police announce that Magnotta left Canada for France on May Suspect Luka Rocco Magnotta is held in a Berlin jail awaiting extradition to Canada on charges of first-degree murder and other offences, after a global dragnet tracked him down in the German capital.
Staff opening the mail at two Vancouver elementary schools discover a human hand and a foot, and it's later determined they came from Montreal — prompting speculation about a Magnotta link.
Law enforcement sources in California confirm there is no link between Magnotta and a case in which severed hands, feet and a head were found near the Hollywood sign, according to the L. Concordia University announces the creation of an award commemorating the life of Jun Lin, the Chinese student who was killed in late May and dismembered.
The family of Chinese student Jun Lin, who was brutally murdered and dismembered in Montreal last month, says his death was a "destructive blow" that left them physically and psychologically spent. The law also compelled the trial judge to ask the defendant whether he would like to say anything about the trial, verdict or sentence. Speaking to reporters later Tuesday, the Lin family lawyer said Magnotta missed his opportunity to express any remorse or offer an apology for his crimes — a key reason the father, Diran Lin, lived in Canada throughout the trial.
Throughout the trial, defence lawyer Luc Leclair sought to convince the jury Magnotta was in a state of psychosis, the result of severe mental illness, when he killed and dismembered year-old Lin in May After the courtroom was closed and the case wrapped, Leclair said his client, who he maintains is paranoid schizophrenic, was disappointed with the verdict but, at the same time, relieved. The defendant put his future in the hands of a jury, Leclair said. Magnotta will take the time to look at the merits and grounds for an appeal.
Crown prosecutor Louis Bouthillier, meanwhile, argued the defendant planned the deliberate killing and should be found guilty of all five charges. The prosecutor said although the case was challenging, he never had a doubt the jury would find Magnotta guilty — especially considering the defendant did not testify during the trial. Several defence psychiatrists testified Magnotta was schizophrenic and was in a state of psychosis when he killed Lin; others, testifying for the prosecution, have said Magnotta had a personality disorder and had the capacity to know the difference between right and wrong on that fateful night in Montreal.
The jury had four options for a verdict on the murder charge: guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not criminally responsible because of mental disorder. Full Menu Search Menu. While police traced Luka's movements, he had already escaped by the time the police arrived at the scene.
Due to the nature of Luka's crimes, commercial airlines refused to transport him back to Canada, meaning Magnetto was returned to his motherland in an air force jet.
In another shocking development in the case, Luka insisted he was forced into carrying out these horrific crimes by a man called Emmanuel 'Manny' Lopez. However, the same Facebook group that identified the cat killer and help bring him to justice also debunked Luka's claims. They had already discovered that the suspect had multiple social media profiles, which he had previously used to share the videos and infiltrate the private group, before coming across an account linked to this so-called 'Manny'.
One of Luka's aliases was 'K Trammel', which through a quick Google search led the members of the group to discover Manny was a fictional character in the movie, Basic Instinct. What's more, Sharon Stone's character Catherine Trammel gave Luka inspiration for the name of the fake profile, and he also copied a scene from the film itself when killing student Lin Jun.
The scene in question sees Sharon Stone's character straddle a naked man who is tied to the bed. She then reaches for an ice pick and stab him multiple times in the chest.
There's also a stained glass window behind the bed, which very much resembles to crime scene in the 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick video produced by Luka. ES Money. The Escapist.
0コメント