Surveillance footage shown in Canadian dismemberment case

MONTREAL -- Jurors in the trial of a Canadian man accused of dismembering his Chinese lover and mailing the body parts to schools and political parties were shown chilling surveillance footage of the victim entering his apartment, and later, the accused lugging garbage bags into the basement, reports the CBC.

Luka Magnotta, 32, admitted to the killing but pleaded not guilty Monday. His lawyer said he is schizophrenic and not criminally responsible in his opening remarks at the trial Monday.

Magnotta faces five charges in connection with the 2012 slaying of 33-year-old engineering student Jun Lin at his Montreal apartment. The gruesome case shocked Canadians and quickly gained international notoriety after body parts arrived at offices of Canada's biggest political parties and a video appeared online that prosecutors say shows Magnotta stabbing and having sex with the dismembered corpse.

The security footage obtained from Magnotta's apartment building was shown Thursday during the testimony of police detective Claudette Hamlin, reports the CBC, and shows Magnotta's behavior in the moments before and after the murder.

The two are seen entering the building together, chatting, and Lin is not seen again. Over the next 24 hours, according to the report, Magnotta is seen making repeated trips to the basement lugging trash bags, and changes his clothes several times.

He reportedly once takes an elevator, toting a large canvas suitcase.

Before Hamlin took the stand, the court reportedly heard emotional testimony from a janitor in Magnotta's building who discovered the first of Lin's remains. Michael Nadeau said he found a suitcase covered in maggots and pried it open to reveal the remains.

"We saw a neck, shoulders and the top of a torso, and that was enough for us. We called 911 right away," he said, according to the CBC.

Earlier in the day Thursday, the court reportedly heard a recording of an interview with apartment superintendent Eric Schorer, who has since died.

Schorer said in the recording Magnotta as "very normal, very cordial," and said he wanted to live in the neighborhood because he had a child nearby, reports the CBC.

In his opening address Monday, prosecutor Louis Bouthillier warned the jury to expect "graphic" and "gruesome" evidence, including the video and photographs of Lin's dismembered body.

Tuesday, jurors were shown graphic photos of the boxes Magnotta used to mail Lin's body parts to two Vancouver schools and the Conservative and Liberal party offices in Ottawa, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail. They were reportedly wrapped in pink tissue paper and black gift bags.

Bloody crime scene photos were also displayed, reports the paper.

Bouthillier said he will demonstrate Magnotta planned Lin's killing up to six months in advance, and show he laid out those plans in an email to a London journalist who will testify during the trial.

"It is our position that this email makes it clear that Mr. Magnotta was planning to kill a human being and that he was going to make a movie of that killing," he said.

Meanwhile, the defense will seek to prove Magnotta is mentally ill and can't be held criminally responsible for his actions.

The trial is expected to last between six and eight weeks.