Where is Luka Magnotta now? He is in a Quebec prison where he’ll spend the rest of his life
Jun Lin was the unfortunate victim of Luka Magnotta’s murderous impulses. Luka started by killing cats but soon felt the urge to kill a human. Luka tied Jun to a bed, turned the camera on, and murdered him. Magnotta then recorded himself eating Lin’s flesh.
In a dreadful show of pride in his achievement, Luka mailed Jun’s body parts to party offices in Canada. “Roses are red, violets are blue, the police will need dental records to identify you. Bitch,” Luka attached that poem alongside a body part he sent to a school.
Lin fled Canada and was apprehended in Germany at an internet café. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
It took eight days for a jury to return a guilty verdict on the first-degree murder charge brought against Luka. Luka presented a not guilty plea, but the evidence presented by the prosecution cast away all doubt about his guilt.
The bone of contention was whether Luka’s state of mind at the time of the murders could absolve him of responsibility. Defense psychiatrists testified that Magnotta was a paranoid schizophrenic in a state of psychosis when he murdered Lin.
They tried to convince the jury that Luka couldn’t tell between right or wrong, which would have rendered him not guilty due to a mental disorder. However, the jury didn’t buy the defense’s theory, as it found Luka guilty of first-degree murder.
Magnotta would later claim that he didn’t want his lawyers to pursue the Not Criminally Responsible defense. In a book titled, My Son, the Killer, written by Luka’s mother, Luka regrets that he didn’t ‘tell his story’ at the trial. Magnotta says:
“I have no mental illness whatsoever. I had to go with it, even though I didn’t want to, but my lawyers pressured me into it. I told the doctors I had no mental illness. Even now in prison I take no medications, but the lawyers said our only chance was to go with the NCR defense. I wish I didn’t do it, I wish I testified and told the story my way.”
Magnotta said nothing after the jury rendered its verdict. “He accepts the verdict,” Luka’s attorney, Luc Leclair, told Global News. Leclair said that Luka would consider an appeal, but it seems like he chose against appealing the decision.
Luka can apply for parole 25 years into his sentence. It will likely be an exercise in futility given the gruesome nature of his crimes. His lack of remorse will also work against him if he applies for parole. Luka Magnotta will likely spend the rest of his life in the Canadian prison system.
Luka Magnotta reportedly enjoys an easy life in prison. In a letter to author Brian Whitney, Luka described his idyllic prison life:
“I’m outside the majority of the time; I play a lot of video games. We have movie nights. We all have our own TVs. I have painting class and I exercise a lot. I practice language studies. People need to be proud of their accomplishments. Know your value and share it with everyone.”
Magnotta’s crimes traumatized his mother, Anna Yourkin, but she forgave him. Anna has built a strong bond with Luka, as she often visits the prison to speak with him.
She witnessed Luka’s 2017 wedding to fellow inmate Anthony Jolin. Luka and Anthony met via a dating forum dubbed Canadian Inmates Connect. In his dating profile, Luka stated that he wanted an educated person looking for a long-term relationship.
Anthony is an armed robber serving life in prison for murdering another inmate. The pair connected in June 2015, and two years later, they married. Anthony and Luka are legally married, but prison authorities denied their consummation of the marriage, a honeymoon, and cohabitation.
In some way, Luka still feels that he is misunderstood. Therefore, he prefers not to address his crimes. Brian Whitney told The Toronto Sun:
“He doesn’t like talking about the actual crime itself. He will talk about anything else at length, but not that. In his view, people were just obsessed with him and making things up. At one point he said, ‘The lies people tell are what separates me from the rest of society.’ In other words, he isn’t the one that is messed up, it is everyone else.”
