CAUTION: GRAPHIC CONTENT MAY DISTURB SOME READERS
MONTREAL — Jurors at Luka Rocco Magnotta’s murder trial saw video clips on Thursday that show the accused holding an oscillating saw as he stands over a man who is sleeping.
Video and stills of the mystery man, who has never been identified by Montreal police, were shot on May 19, 2012, less than a week before Jun Lin’s dismemberment and desecration in Magnotta’s apartment.
The images show the unknown young man with his arms and legs bound to the bed with rope.
He can be heard snoring lightly as Magnotta moves around, adjusting a cover over his head and trying different camera angles.
In one clip, Magnotta can be seen straddling him, holding the saw and asking the man if he’s OK.
Jurors also saw photos of the two laying together, clothed, both seemingly asleep.
The man escaped unharmed and the jury viewed surveillance video from the building showing him, groggy, leaving with Magnotta’s help.
The images and video clips were the original, unedited material used to make the so-called murder video posted online of Lin on May 25, 2012.
Jurors previously heard the mystery man appears in the first 53 seconds of the online video.
Panagiotis Sarganis, a Montreal police computer crimes detective, testified he extracted the images from a memory card contained in a camera discarded in the trash behind Magnotta’s apartment.
Before the images were viewed, Justice Guy Cournoyer warned jurors they’d be seeing original material used to create the online video.
They watched impassively, some taking notes while others kept their eyes fixed on the screens before them.
Magnotta briefly looked up at some images, but largely kept his head down in the prisoner’s box.
Much of the material was already seen by the jury when it viewed the “One Lunatic, One Ice Pick video” one week ago.
The video doesn’t show’s Lin’s slaying: he is already dead when the camera is turned on.
The last of the video images is one of Magnotta dropping his pants and using Lin’s severed arm to masturbate.
Jurors also saw photos of Lin’s body in various states of dismemberment and one with his limbs and head piled together.
The unedited video clips show Magnotta stabbing Lin’s dead body repeatedly.
Sarganis testified he was able to determine the dates the images were taken by using the murder video as a reference point.
Magnotta has admitted the physical acts of which he’s accused but has pleaded not guilty by way of mental disorder.
He faces four charges in addition to premeditated murder: 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.
Cournoyer told the jury the Crown is expected to wrap up its case early next week, while the defence could start presenting next Friday.