Luka
Magnotta
Other
Names: Eric Clinton Kirk Newman, Vladimir
Romanov, Mattia Del Santo, "Jimmy”, "Justin”, "Angel”, Kirk
Trammel
Occupation:
Model,
Sex worker
Early Trouble with the Law: Luke Magnotta did not have much of a criminal record until 2005, he was convicted of one count of impersonation and three counts of fraud (against Sears Canada, The Brick, and 2001 Audio Video) after impersonating a woman to apply for a credit card and purchasing over $10,000 worth of goods. He pleaded guilty and received a nine-month conditional sentence with 12 months of probation. Magnotta also was previously sought by animal rights groups for allegedly uploading videos of himself killing kittens. No charges were sought out though.
Luka Magnotta’s Crimes:
These are the four videos clips posted by Luka
Magnotta to various shock/gore websites. Three of the videos are involve animal
cruelty and killing of animals, which were the start of his killing. The last
video he posted to a Canadian operated shock/gore website on May 25th
2012 was titled 1 Lunatic, 1 Ice Pick. In this video, Luka Magnotta is featured
killing a Chinese international student, Lin Jun.
After the video was posted, reports from viewers and
an attorney from Montana were ignored by the police in Toronto and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. Eventually the police took it seriously and confirmed
that the video was authentic
Luka Magnotta portrayed himself as a psychotic menace,
fueled by sexual deviance and blood lust. When his kitten-killing video made a
stir, he warned a British newspaper that “next time the victims won’t be
small animals” because “once you taste blood, it’s impossible to stop.” He
called himself a “lunatic” on the Internet and wrote a blog that he titled
“Necrophilia Serial Killer Luka Magnotta,” well before the alleged
killing and necrophilia. He clearly wanted the world to see him as ever so dark
and twisted. Lin Jun’s killer used an ice pick, just like the killer in Basic
Instinct. He hacked off body parts and put them in the mail, because that’s
what happened in seven. He videotaped the murder, but didn’t hide
it for personal use, a la Bernardo and Homolka. Instead he immediately uploaded
it to the Internet. The murder was set to the soundtrack of American
Psycho. Luka Magnotta had motives,
and as it seems, it was for attention. In the past Luka Magnotta was reported
for having posted on a White Supremacy page denouncing the Chinese people,
which could have been what lead Luka Magnotta to killing his victim, Lin Jun.
The actual murder of Lin
Jun happened throughout the night of May 24th 2012, how long it
actually went on for is unknown except for the 11 minute video we have of Luka
desecrated the body of deceased Jin Lun. We do know the extent of what happened
to Lin Jun through examining his body and amount of blood. The autopsy report
revealed a lot, even showing that there was sleeping medication and allergy
medication in his system from a toxicology report. There were three categories
of injuries to Lin, Dr. Daze said – the ante-mortem severing of his neck; the
likely perimortem, which means at or around the time of death, blunt-force
blows to his forehead, eye socket and facial bones; and 69 post-mortem wounds
that included penetrating or stabbing injuries which were deeper than they were
long, edged weapon injuries near Lin’s navel, and several blunt force injuries
near or in his anus. Once the head was recovered a month later, it was also
determined by the amount of blackened blood found in the neck area that he was
decapitated while still alive.
Reading form the autopsy
report, the body of Jin Lun suffered 55 stabs in total, 37 to the upper body
and 18 to the abdomen, some being so deep that they punctured the victim’s
lungs intestines, which all happened after Lin Jun was already dead and most
likely caused by a screwdriver that was found in Luka Magnotta’s trash that he
left behind. There were another 73 superficial cuts to Lin’s back, arms and
legs; a part of his buttocks was cut out; and the tips of Lin’s fingers were
damaged in a way that might indicate Magnotta had tried to remove the victim’s
fingerprints. Analysis concluded those injuries were also inflicted after death
– likely with a knife, the pathologist said. The pathologist also noted blunt
force traumas to the skull, likely delivered with the hammer investigators
recovered from Magnotta’s items. There were also so many fractures on the skull
that they all could not be counted. The dismemberment of limbs all occurred
after the victim was already dead. Tools that the police later found along with
the screwdriver were, scissors, knives and a small electric saw.
Canadian authorities
obtained a “more extensive” version of the video and said that cannibalism may
have been performed. Not only did he allege perform cannibalism, Magnotta also
performed sexual acts with the deceased Jin Lun, first by using his severed arm
to fondle himself over top of his pants and then eventually when his pants are
down, then later Luka commits necrophilia on Lin’s lifeless shell. Later he
uses a wine bottle to sodomize the body of Lin Jun again while using his arm to
fondle himself.
Victim “Lin Jun”: Lin
Jun, also known as Justin Lin was an international student from Wuhan and an
undergraduate in engineering and computer science faculty at Concordia
University. Lin had been studying in Montreal since July 2011, in May 2012, Lin
moved into a new apartment with a roommate on the first of the month and was
last seen May 24th 2012. His boss became suspicious as he never
showed up to work the following day and his friends also became worried and
started to search form him on May 27th 2012, but did not report him
as missing to the police until May 29th by his friends.
Last
time Jin Lun was seen. In this video, it shows the last time
Jin Lun was seen by anyone, and disturbingly shows what is later to be
identified as Jin Lun’s body being deposed of while Luka Magnotta is wearing
Lin’s clothes.
How
Luka Magnotta Was Caught: On
May 29th 2012, a package containing the left foot of Jin Lun was
delivered to the national headquarters of the Conservative party of Canada.
Another package containing the left hand was intercepted in a Canada Post
processing facility, which was address to the Liberal Party. The torso of Jin
Lun was discovered in a suitcase that was left in a garbage pile in the alley
behind the apartment building in the Snowdon area in Montreal. Police searched
the scene where the body was found, and found and recovered human remains,
bloody clothes, papers identifying the suspect, as well as sharp and blunt
objects from the back alley. Footage from the building surveillance cameras
inside the building showed a suspect bringing numerous garbage bags outside,
and the images matched the suspect who was captured on video at the post office
in Cote-des-Neiges. The police then searched the apartment which was being
rented out by Luka Magnotta for the previous few months, where they found it
mostly empty except for blood on the mattress, refrigerator, table and bathtub.
"If you don't like the reflection. Don't
look in the mirror. I don't care" was written in red ink on the inside of
a closet.” On May 30, 2012, it was confirmed that the body parts belonged to
the same individual, later identified as Lin Jun. The suspect in the
case was quickly identified as Magnotta, who had by then fled. A note was found
with the package sent to the Conservative Party, saying six body parts had been
distributed and the perpetrator would kill again. The other three packages also
contained notes, but their contents were undisclosed by police, who cited their
concerns about possible copycat crimes. On June 5, 2012, a package
containing a right foot was delivered to St. George's School and
another package containing a right hand to False Creek Elementary
School in Vancouver. Both schools opened as normal the following morning. It
was confirmed that both packages were sent from Montreal. On June
13, the four limbs and the torso were matched to Lin
using DNA samples from his family. On July 1, his head was recovered
at the edge of a small lake in Montreal's Angrignon Park after police
received an anonymous tip.
At this point an arrest
warrant for Magnotta was issued by the police in Montreal, which was later
upgraded to a Canada wide warrant accusing him of five crimes.
1. First-degree murder;
2. Committing an indignity to a dead body;
3. Publishing obscene material;
4. Mailing obscene, indecent, immoral or
scurrilous material; and
5. Criminally harassing Canadian Prime
Minister Stephen Harper and several (unnamed) members of Parliament.
Magnotta had purchased
a flight to Paris on May 25th using a passport with his own name on
it. Magnotta was traced by his cell phone signal to a hotel he was staying at
in Bagnolet. By time police arrived, Luka Magnotta was already gone and they
found pornographic magazines and air sickness bags in his room. At this point
Luka was travelling under a false name which he had on a passport as Kirk
Trammel.
On June 4th
2012 Magnotta was apprehended by the Berlin Police at an internet café while he
was reading stories about himself. Upon being apprehended, Luka Magnotta
attempted giving the police fake names before finally admitting who he was, his
identity was later confirmed through fingerprint evidence.
Forensics: In the preliminary hearing there were several expert witnesses who
testified, including a forensic pathologist, a forensic toxicologist, a
forensic odonatologist, a bloodstain analyst, data recovery specialists and an
Internet investigations officer. During the actual trial, which lasted 10 weeks
starting from September 29th 2014, Luka Magnotta pleaded not guilty,
admitting to the acts of which he was accused but claiming diminished
reasonability due to mental disorders.
Six tools (a pair of
scissors, two knives, a screwdriver, an oscillating saw and a hammer) were
recovered outside Magnotta's apartment and analysed by ballistics expert
Gilbert Desjardins. He said none could be definitively linked to the killing,
and no skeletal marks suggested the screwdriver or scissors were used, but some
were consistent with saw and knife or X-Acto blade injuries.
After a 12-week trial
which included 10 weeks of hearing testimony, the jury of eight women and four
men received final instructions from the trial judge on December 15, 2014 and
was sequestered before beginning its deliberations the next day. On their
eighth day of deliberation, they returned a verdict of guilty on all
charges. Magnotta will serve a mandatory life sentence and will be
eligible for parole in 25 years. He was also sentenced to 19 years for other
charges, to be served concurrently.
Mental Health: During the trial, Luka Magnotta was examined
by 6 expert witnesses of doctors.
Trial Expert Testimony
|
||
Expert
|
Diagnosis
|
Crown/Defence
|
Dr. Roy
|
Borderline
personality disorder with histrionic traits
|
Independent
|
Dr. Paris
|
Borderline
personality disorder
|
Crown
|
Dr. Chamberland
|
Antisocial
personality disorder, Histrionic personality disorder, Narcissistic
Personality Disorder
|
Crown
|
Dr. Allard
|
Paranoid
schizophrenia
|
Defence
|
Dr. Watts
|
Schizophrenia,
Histrionic personality disorder, Borderline personality traits, Paraphilia
|
Defence
|
Dr. Barth
|
Paranoid
schizophrenia
|
Defence
|
Luka Magnotta had also
been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia as a teenager. It was revealed
during trial by the defence expert Dr. Joel Watts that Magnotta showed signs of
episodic schizophrenia (undifferentiated type), histrionic personality disorder,
borderline personality traits and paraphilia not otherwise
specified. The prosecution revealed that Magnotta had been using illegal
drugs during his teenage years which led to symptoms that mimicked
schizophrenia and that Magnotta has been diagnosed with borderline
personality disorder by Crown expert Dr. Joel Paris.
Where they are now and Jail Sentence: Luka Magnotta is currently serving a mandatory
life sentence and will be eligible for parole in 22 years to this date. He was
also sentenced to 19 years for other charges, to be served concurrently. He is
serving his imprisonment in Archambault Institution in Quebec.
Sources
