Brandon Sun - ONLINE EDITION
Jury in gruesome slaying weighs insanity defence
A Winnipeg jury must now get inside the head of an admitted killer to determine if he is criminally responsible for his crime.
Deliberations are to begin today in the case of Miloslav Kapsik, who claims he was mentally ill when he beat his wife of 36 years to death with a claw hammer. Kapsik, 63, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the March 2010 slaying of Ludmila Kapsik, 59. If successful, he would not go to prison but would be placed under the care of medical officials.
Crown and defence lawyers wrapped up the case Monday with vastly different closing arguments for jurors to consider.
Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky is relying on the word of an independent medical expert who claims Kapsik was suffering from "major depression and psychotic features" at the time of the attack. Dr. Giovana Levin, a forensic psychiatrist at Health Sciences Centre, spent months working closely with Kapsik after his arrest. She said he was wrestling with sleep deprivation, suicidal thoughts and was hearing voices. Kapsik said he began hearing "mumbling" in his head in early 2009 and considered ending his own life. He bought a rope and planned to hang himself, but changed his mind, jurors were told.
The Crown is challenging Levin's diagnosis, suggesting to jurors on Monday that Levin "lost her objectivity" in offering her opinion.
"He knew exactly what he was doing. He knew it was wrong," prosecutor Nicole Roch said.
Roch urged jurors to look at the brutality of the crime, in which Kapsik smashed his wife's head at least 57 times as she crawled across the floor bleeding to death. He then washed himself, changed his clothes and sat on the couch near her body for an hour before calling 911.
www.mikeoncrime.com
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