Edmonton filmmaker admits he killed victim in publicity stunt gone awry: lawyer

An amateur filmmaker is no longer pleading his innocence in the death of a man who was killed, cut up and dumped into a sewer.

Mark Twitchell’s lawyer opened his client’s defence Wednesday by saying Twitchell admits he was involved in Johnny Altinger’s death, but not in the way the Crown portrayed it. Twitchell originally pleaded not guilty.

Charles Davison said Twitchell, who is charged with first-degree murder, never meant for Altinger to die in what was supposed to be a publicity stunt.

Davison said Twitchell’s idea was to lure men to a garage that he had rented on Edmonton’s south side, pretend to kill them and then let them escape. He hoped the men would write about their experiences on the Internet and create buzz for a slasher movie Twitchell had recently filmed called “House of Cards.”

Twitchell then took the stand where he began to calmly and confidently telling his version of events. He looked straight ahead, hands on the witness box, or looked directly at jurors as he explained movie terminology to them.

Altinger disappeared Oct. 10, 2008 when he went to the garage, thinking he would meet a woman he’d met online. His charred and hacked up remains were found in a sewer in 2010.

The Crown argued Twitchell had been planning Altinger’s death as part of a twisted desire to become a serial killer. Prosecutors entered into evidence a document found on his laptop — a 42-page first-person account of an unnamed author’s actions toward that goal.

At the start of the trial Twitchell, 31, offer to plead guilty to the lesser charge of interfering with Altinger’s remains. The Crown rejected the proposed plea.

On Tuesday, an Edmonton police detective described on the stand how he was called to the remand centre about 18 months after Twitchell was charged. He testified that the accused handed him a Google map with hand-written directions to a sewer near the home of Twitchell’s parents.

When the detective and a partner checked out the sewer, they found Altinger’s body parts.

Earlier in the week, the Crown presented blood spatter evidence that prosecutors believe helps prove Twitchell killed Altinger, 38, by first cracking his skull with a copper pipe. They said he then knifed him to death, cut up the body and dumped it in a sewer.

A police constable testified there were well over 200 red blotches and stains on the inside of the garage and some blood even landed outside the main door.

There was more blood on the floor of the garage in streaks and blotches readily visible to the naked eye

“I blasted him so hard blood spattered everywhere,” writes the author of the document found on Twitchell’s laptop. “He hit the floor but was still conscious.”

The writer of the file, which prosecutors have suggested was Twitchell’s diary, said the victim (he called him “Jim”) pleaded and bargained for his life but the author was undeterred.

“I wailed on him again.”

Jim would not be subdued and made a dizzy, last-ditch attempt to grab the pipe.

“I wrestled it from him and that was the last straw. I pulled my hunting knife from its sheath and, watching the shock on his face as he saw the blade, I thrust it into his gut. His reaction was pure Hollywood.”

Jurors heard blood was also found in both Twitchell’s and Altinger’s cars.

Court had already heard that Altinger’s blood was also found on a variety of knives, cleavers and saws in Twitchell’s possession, as well as on his laptop keyboard. Bloodstains were also in Twitchell’s washing machine.

Twitchell was trying to finance a deal for a feature film. The Crown said he had embarked on a secret life of a serial killer to mimic his TV hero Dexter Morgan. Dexter is a blood-spatter expert who works for the Miami police but moonlights as a vigilante serial killer.