Warning: This story contains graphic information some readers may find disturbing.
MONTREAL — Jurors at Luka Magnotta’s first-degree murder trial sat through yet another series of grisly photos and videos Thursday as a Montreal police computer crimes detective presented evidence recovered from the defendant’s camera.
The videos are raw files recovered from Magnotta’s camera that he threw out before fleeing Montreal. The footage is what he used to cut the 10-minute video that made the rounds online days after he killed 33-year-old Jun Lin.
While the online version had a New Order song playing throughout, the raw files have only natural sound — the sound of snoring coming from a man lying bound on a bed, the sound of creaking floors as Magnotta moves around his apartment, the sound of the killer calmly asking the snoring man “You OK?” while straddling him.
READ MORE: Magnotta brought home mystery man a week before killing, court hears
The dark-haired man in that footage, however, was not Jun Lin. It was taken on May 19, 2012, computer crimes detective Panagiotis Sarganis told the Quebec Superior Court Thursday.
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Earlier this month, Montreal Sgt. Det. Claudette Hamlin showed surveillance footage from the building where Magnotta was renting his bachelor apartment.
The footage shows Lin and Magnotta together for the first time at 10:20 p.m. on May 24, 2012.
Her testimony included footage of Magnotta walking into the building with an unidentified man on the night of May 18, 2012.
At 11:30 a.m. on May 19, the cameras caught Magnotta leaving the building with the unidentified man, holding his arm in such a way one would hold someone who is unsteady and off-balance.
READ MORE: Luka Magnotta surveillance videos released
Despite an exhaustive search, Montreal police have not been able to identify the man, Hamlin said.
The first sequence Lin Sarganis presented Thursday showed the victim lying on his back, his head turned toward his left shoulder and his right arm lying across his chest.
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Magnotta is then seen walking toward Lin’s body.
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Without the soundtrack Magnotta chose to play over the snuff film, the court endured the sounds of the dozens stab wounds inflicted on Lin, described in the victim’s autopsy.
The video revealed Lin’s throat had been slashed prior to the violent stabbings. The forensic pathologist who performed Lin’s autopsy told the court earlier this month the most likely cause of death was the cut to the throat.
Magnotta faces five charges including first-degree murder, committing an indignity to a human body, publishing obscene material, criminally harassing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other members of Parliament and mailing obscene and indecent material.
READ MORE: Luka Magnotta jury hears details of victim’s autopsy, likely cause of death
He 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.
Still, during cross examination defence attorney Luc Leclair insinuated a second perpetrator may have been present the night of Lin’s killing. Leclair asked Sarganis several questions along that line: Was the arm seen in one sequence where water is running over a body part indeed Magnotta’s? Was it Magnotta who moved the camera and switched the function from still to video photography?
Sarganis couldn’t provide answers, telling the lawyer his job was not to analyze the content but only to extract data from the camera.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer told the 14 jurors Thursday morning the Crown is expecting to wrap its case by next Tuesday and the defence will likely be prepared to begin presenting its case that Thursday.
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