MONTREAL — Thomas Murphy hasn’t hired an escort since May 2012, when he saw an image of his most recent companion all over the news, captured in an international manhunt, days after their last rendezvous.
“I said, ‘Holy crap! That’s the guy I dated!” the Crown witness said during his chief testimony in Luka Magnotta’s first-degree murder trial.
READ MORE: Berlin man tells court about meeting Luka Magnotta, taking killer into home
Crown prosecutor Louis Bouthiller is set to call his 11th witness Wednesday, one day after the court was left considering the dichotomy Murphy’s testimony established in understanding the personality of Magnotta — the man most know only as the man who savagely killed Jun Lin and cut up his body, filming the entire crime.
Murphy, in a big gruff voice, said he first met Magnotta during the early days of March 2012, just around his 67th birthday. Feeling lonely and down, he went to rentboy.com, where he could hire an escort. He saw two pictures of Magnotta, who was using the pseudonym Nathan22. One showed him in his underwear; in the other, he was completely naked.
READ MORE: Court hears details of Luka Magnotta’s dramatic arrest in Berlin
Magnotta came to Murphy’s apartment that evening in March. Magnotta asked to use the washroom, the sat and talked. Magnotta had an iced tea and Murphy offered him crackers and cheese.
The meeting, which lasted an hour or so, cost Murphy about $150, but he liked the young man. So they met once more that month, then three times in May — the month Magnotta bound Jun Lin to a bed before brutally killing him.
Murphy – a U.S. naval officer from Florida with a place in Montreal – took his place on the stand Tuesday, dressed in khaki pants and a black hooded sweatshirt. He didn’t recognize the man sitting in the prisoner’s box — the defendant is heavier, with darker hair than the young man Murphy recalls. He wears glasses now.
READ MORE: Luka Magnotta surveillance videos released
Magnotta and Murphy had sex, the witness said, but there was no bondage, nothing kinky. “It was plain Jane gay sex,” he told the court.
Murphy prepared supper — steak Diane — for one of their meetings in May, he said. Magnotta had asked to bring his new puppy because it was young and would need to be fed, Murphy said. Police testified last week they found a small black and white puppy, dead, wrapped in garbage bags among the countless items the killer threw in the trash.
Murphy described his escort as a nice, simple, young kid who was “trying to make a few bucks.”
READ MORE: What did we learn in week one of the trial?
WATCH: Victim’s friend choked back tears during testimony during a revealing day in court, Global Montreal’s Domenic Fazioli reports.
“One of the reasons I liked him was he didn’t get drunk, he didn’t come in wanting to smoke a joint or do drugs,” he said. “The fact that I had him back … he was friendly.”
Murphy said he saw Magnotta as a clean-cut guy.
They were supposed to meet again on May 21 — three days before Magnotta would take Lin home and kill him — but Magnotta never returned Murphy’s text, he told the court.
The next time Murphy saw Magnotta was in a photograph on the news, wearing a striped red, white and blue tank top.
READ MORE: Magnotta brought home mystery man a week before killing, court hears
GALLERY: Jun Lin was “shy and lovely,” and before Luka Magnotta was known as a killer, he seemed friendly, the court heard.
“I was scared out of my wits,” Murphy said Tuesday. “To this day, I haven’t seen an escort since.”
Though Murphy had only met Magnotta five times, his testimony offered a glimpse inside the mindset of a man most observers have only known as the man who admits to killing and dismembering a 33-year-old Chinese national attending school in Montreal.
The court also learned more about Magnotta’s victim Tuesday.
READ MORE: Tearful father of Magnotta victim speaks to media through lawyer
Crown witness Dong Dong Xu described himself as a “close friend” of Lin’s.
He became involved in the search for Lin in the final week of May 2012 when Lin’s former boyfriend, who had moved back to China, hadn’t had word form Lin in more than two days.
Xu and Lin had chatted online, but met face to face for the first time just a few weeks after Xu moved to Canada about three years ago, he said. They lived near each other and hung out often, he said.
At the former boyfriend’s behest, Xu frantically searched Lin’s Montreal apartment and the depaneur where Lin worked on Sunday, May 27, the university the following day — all in vain.
All he found in the apartment was oil in a pan on the stove and eggs on the counter, several pieces of Lin’s ID and a very hungry cat, he said. The university was a dead end.
Xu had a bad feeling. He was afraid “something unpleasant” had happened, he told court Tuesday.
He called called and met with police but was told they couldn’t do too much, he said.
READ MORE: Magnotta jury hears of victim’s final message to former lover, sex habits
The following day, May 29, he heard chatter about a video online depicting a murder, dismemberment and beheading. He found a link, but didn’t even have to press play: As soon as he saw a still of the victim’s head, he knew.
He said he “skimmed” the video twice, fast-forwarding through parts, just to make sure he was actually seeing Lin.
He called police. The officers who showed up didn’t say much; their colleagues would have already been on the scene of the crime. The torso they had found had no hands, feet or head.
Xu said Lin was physically fit, didn’t drink and, to his knowledge, didn’t do drugs.
“He was shy, he didn’t talk too much at first … He was very lovely,” Xu said.
Magnotta faces five charges including first-degree murder, committing an indignity to a human body, publishing obscene material, criminally harassing Harper and other members of Parliament and mailing obscene and indecent material.
During the first part of the day, the court saw footage of Magnotta’s dramatic arrest in Berlin.
Magnotta admitted to committing the actions of which he’s accused but pleaded not guilty. His lawyer said he intends to argue Magnotta was so psychologically sick, he wasn’t in control of his actions during Lin’s killing and dismembering.
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