Admitted killer Alex (Aixin) Xu was so high on a hallucinogenic drug he was unable to form the intent to commit murder in the death of his mother three years ago, his lawyer told a Calgary jury on Monday.
Defense argues LSD-induced psychosis
Defence counsel Dale Fedorchuk said jurors should accept the accused's evidence he consumed two tabs of LSD the previous evening and began suffering hallucinations that culminated in him killing his mother between two homes across from the Foothills Medical Centre.
"His thoughts split into multiple levels of consciousness," the lawyer told jurors deciding Xu's fate. Fedorchuk said that state continued from the time Xu became high to after his parents took him to the hospital, fearing an overdose.
CCTV footage from the hospital showed Xu leaving emergency with his mother following him in an effort to get him to return. They eventually ended up between two houses, where Xu took a large rock and repeatedly struck his mom.
At that time his client was perceiving an alternate reality and unable to form the intent to commit murder, said Fedorchuk, in arguing jurors should find his client guilty of a reduced charge of manslaughter.
"When she pulled on his arm he looked at her face. He found it to be monstrously deformed in a spiral pattern," the lawyer said, in detailing his client's evidence. "Alex experienced an immense, visceral fear. His intoxicated mind perceived his mother as a demonic entity that had come out of nowhere and was going to eat his soul."
Crown argues fabrication
But Crown prosecutor Vicki Faulkner argued Xu's claim — that he thought his mother was a demon about to consume his soul when he bludgeoned her with a large rock — was just a figment of his imagination. Faulkner said jurors deciding Xu's fate should convict him of second-degree murder, suggesting his testimony that he was severely intoxicated wasn't supported by the evidence.
She noted Xu often rambled while giving his evidence, unable to stick to his script. "There are times when the accused clearly loses the main plot of his own story," Faulkner said.
She said Xu showed no signs of intoxication when he flagged down two separate motorists and confessed to murdering his mother, telling a 911 operator the same thing before police arrived. Body camera video of his arrest shows Const. Jameel Ali approaching Xu and his father, who had gone to retrieve the family car when the accused and his mom wandered off, and asking, "How are you guys doing." Xu's immediate response to the officer was, "I just murdered my mom," Faulkner noted.
"The accused is telling the truth when he speaks to all those people. 'I just murdered my mom.'"
Jurors will begin deliberating the case Monday afternoon after receiving final instructions from Justice Robert Armstrong.
