Magnotta ordered to stand trial on first-degree murder charge
Posted April 12, 2013 12:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A judge has ordered accused killer Luka Rocco Magnotta to stand trial on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Chinese student Jun Lin.
Quebec court Judge Lori-Renee Weitzman has concluded there is enough evidence to send Magnotta to trial.
Her decision in Montreal today comes after a lengthy preliminary hearing that featured 32 Crown witnesses.
The defence presented no witnesses.
Evidence presented at the hearing is subject to a publication ban.
In the event Weitzman ordered a trial, Magnotta’s legal team wanted the charge to be lessened to second-degree murder.
Magnotta was arrested in Berlin last summer in the killing and dismemberment of Lin in Montreal last May.
Magnotta is facing four other charges related to the case: committing an indignity to a body; publishing obscene material; criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament; and mailing obscene and indecent material.
Magnotta previously pleaded not guilty to all the charges and opted for trial by judge and jury.
The trial will be held in Quebec Superior Court.
