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Thread: Canadian Blake Leibel Sentenced to LWOP in 2016 CA Torture and Murder of Iana Kasian

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    Canadian Blake Leibel Sentenced to LWOP in 2016 CA Torture and Murder of Iana Kasian






    Toronto heir accused of grisly Los Angeles murder could face death penalty

    By Jake Edmiston and Richard Warnica
    National Post

    LOS ANGELES and TORONTO — A Canadian accused of torturing, disfiguring and ultimately killing his girlfriend in their West Hollywood apartment last week could be put to death by the state of California if convicted because of the gruesome nature of his alleged crime.

    Blake Leibel, a graphic novelist, screenwriter and son of a prominent Toronto developer, pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, mayhem, aggravated mayhem and torture Tuesday. The alleged victim: Iana Kasian, his live-in girlfriend and mother of his newborn child.

    Prosecutors say Leibel tortured and mutilated Kasian before killing her, then draining the blood from her body. (The mayhem charges refer to the mutilation.)

    Because of the vicious circumstances of the case, Leibel is eligible for the death penalty, according to a press release from the Los Angeles Police Department.

    “A decision on whether to seek the death penalty will be made at a later date,” the release said. California last executed a prisoner in 2006.

    The accused wore a sleeveless padded suicide jacket during his brief court appearance in Los Angeles. He had chains wrapped around his waist, his hands were cuffed in front of him.

    His lawyers met with him for about 10 minutes before his plea. Lawyer Alaleh Kamran questioned Leibel’s mental competence, prompting Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz to a psychological evaluation.

    Police found Leibel barricaded inside his apartment last Thursday after Kasian’s mother reported her missing. The Kyiv, Ukraine-born woman moved to the United States two years ago and gave birth to a baby girl on May 3, her first child, friends said.

    In a picture posted recently on Facebook, a tired-looking Kasian holds a tiny infant in pink pants and a green shirt to her chest. She’s smiling down at the camera, her lips parted slightly, hair tucked messily behind her ears.

    Kasian was reportedly born in in 1986. Her father was a sailor, said Nataliiya Khilshevskaya, a former classmate.

    “She was a very happy person (with a) strong and fighting character,” Khilshevskaya wrote in a message on Facebook.

    Kasian lived in Kyiv until her late 20s, said Denis Aronchik, a family friend. She studied law in college and worked in tax inspection, said another friend, Anna Seleznova.

    Aronchik said she moved to the United States two years ago on a student visa and met Leibel soon afterward.

    Leibel was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department May 20 and charged with sexual assault. He was released the same day on US$100,000 bail.

    Kasian was not the alleged victim, Aronchik said, but when she found out about the charge, she moved out of their apartment and in with her mother, who was visiting the United States to help with the baby.

    Aronchik said Kasian went back to the apartment last Tuesday to speak with Leibel. When she didn’t return by the next day, her mother went to police. On Thursday, officers entered the apartment and found Kasian’s bludgeoned body inside.

    Leibel, his curly hair unkempt, stubble on his cheeks, did not speak in court Tuesday. As he was led into the prisoner’s box, he seemed to scan the courtroom, as if looking for someone.

    He stood against the glass for most of the appearance, staring out toward his lawyers. At one point, he ran his finger along a windowsill.

    Members of Leibel’s family, including his brother Cody, were in the courtroom earlier. But they had stepped out by the time Leibel arrived, under special escort, from jail.

    Kamran declined to comment on the case afterward. She also would not say whether the Leibel family intended to seek custody of the couple’s child.

    “We would really like to have this case tried in the courtroom, not in the … media,” she said.

    Kasian’s mother is caring for the baby, said Aronchik. The family is raising money online to have Kasian’s body brought back to Ukraine and to fund what they expect will be an expensive custody battle.

    “(The baby) is a citizen of America but we want her to live with her grandmother and Yana’s sister in Ukraine,” Kasian’s friend, Kristina Horkova, wrote in a message on Facebook.

    Through Leibel, the baby is an heiress of two prominent and wealthy Toronto families. Leibel’s father, Lorne, made a fortune in the Greater Toronto Area’s suburban home building boom of the 1980s and 1990s as the president of Canada Homes, once described as the nation’s largest home builder.

    His mother, Eleanor Leibel, was the daughter of Paul and Leona Chitel. The Chitel family founded Alros Products Ltd., a plastics company based in Toronto that does business as Polytarp.

    “For me it’s a big loss,” Zhenia Kasian wrote to the National Post in a message Tuesday. “I do not know how to live without my beloved sister.”

    http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...-death-penalty
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Blake Leibel, the Canadian accused in gruesome Hollywood killing, refuses to go to court for hearing

    By Jake Edmiston and Richard Warnica
    National Post

    Blake Leibel, the Canadian accused of torturing and killing his girlfriend in West Hollywood, missed a court appearance in Los Angeles Tuesday after he refused to leave his jail cell, officials said.

    Leibel, the 35-year-old son of a wealthy Toronto real estate developer, has pleaded not guilty to torture, mayhem and murder in the death of Iana Kasian, the mother of his newborn daughter. At an arraignment late last month, Leibel’s legal team questioned his fitness to stand trial. Had Tuesday’s appearance, at the L.A. mental health courthouse, gone ahead, it’s likely a doctor would have been assigned evaluate Leibel’s mental health.

    The hearing was rescheduled for June 23.

    Leibel’s attorneys declined to comment on why he refused to leave his cell.

    The watch commander at Twin Towers Correctional Facility, where Leibel is held, said guards can’t force inmates to go to court.

    “Do inmates refuse to go to court? Yeah, of course,” watch commander Joe Reveles said. “If he didn’t show up in court, then he’s a court no-show.”

    Sheriff’s deputies arrested Leibel on May 26 after finding him barricaded inside his West Hollywood apartment with Kasian’s corpse. Prosecutors later said Kasian’s body showed signs of torture and mutilation. She had given birth to a daughter, her first child and Leibel’s third, earlier in May.

    Leibel, the scion of two prominent Toronto families, styled himself a “creator of worlds” in Los Angeles. He funded obscure, often-violent graphic novels, wrote screenplays, worked on a television series and directed a straight-to-DVD feature film — all the while relying on hefty injections of cash from his wealthy parents, who separated when he was young.

    Friends told the National Post that Leibel seemed to be dismantling his Hollywood life over the past year. He filed for divorce from his wife Amanda Braun last summer, who was then pregnant with their second child. He cut off friends, and moved into an apartment with Kasian in West Hollywood — a modest place compared to the Beverly Hills mansion he kept with his wife and first-born son.

    Sheriff’s deputies went to that apartment on May 26, after Kasian’s mother reported her missing. Deputies arrested Leibel and found Kasian’s mutilated body drained of all blood in a bedroom, according to the district attorney’s office.

    On Tuesday, Lt. David Coleman said detectives were still waiting for the coroner to determine Kasian’s time of death. “It’s very difficult,” he said.

    For now, officials can only say she died between May 23 and 26 — leaving it unclear how long she was allegedly tortured and mutilated before her death.

    On May 20, days before the killing, Leibel was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and released on $100,000 bail. Kasian was not the victim in that case. Speaking through a relative, Kasian’s mother told the Post that Kasian left Leibel after she learned of the arrest, but later went back to the apartment to speak to him. She was never seen alive again.

    http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...to-go-to-court
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Blake Leibel, the Canadian accused in Hollywood torture killing, refuses to go to court for second time: officials

    By Jake Edmiston
    National Post

    A Canadian accused of torturing and killing his girlfriend in Hollywood has twice refused to leave his jail cell for hearings, delaying a California court’s attempt to determine whether he’s fit to stand trial, officials said this week.

    Blake Leibel, 35, was supposed to appear in Los Angeles court Thursday, where a judge likely would have assigned a doctor to evaluate his mental health. But Leibel didn’t show up, according to both the district attorney’s office and the California Superior Court media office.

    His former lawyer, however, was skeptical about the reports from the jail.

    “Well, they’re saying he’s refusing … doesn’t mean it’s true,” attorney Gary Labin said. “I can’t confirm or deny.”

    Until this week, Labin was part of Leibel’s legal team. In court Thursday, he requested to be relieved as co-counsel. In a brief interview, Labin wouldn’t say why he left the team. Asked whether he quit or was fired, Labin replied: “I can’t answer that.”

    Thursday was the court’s second try at assigning a doctor to the case, after Leibel apparently refused to go to a hearing last week. After he didn’t show again Thursday, the hearing was pushed to July 12.

    The last time Leibel appeared in court was May 30, when he pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, torture and mayhem in the death of Iana Kasian, the 30-year-old mother of his newborn daughter. He stood in the prisoner’s box, with chains around his waist, staring vacantly at the gallery. After his attorney expressed doubt in his mental competency, a judge denied bail and referred the case to the mental health courthouse in Los Angeles, where it has been stagnant for almost a month.

    Once a doctor evaluates Leibel, a judge will make a call on his competency. If Leibel is found incompetent, he will be transferred to a state mental health facility where he’ll stay until he’s deemed competent. Otherwise, the case proceeds to a preliminary hearing.

    In California, prison guards can only make inmates go to court if a judge issues an extraction order, which authorizes the use of force. But such an order is a “big deal” in the state, said Ron Kaye, a California defence attorney specializing in prisoners’ rights,

    If an extraction order is issued, guards will first try to coax the inmate from their cell before resorting to physical force, said Lt. Tom Looney, a watch commander at Twin Towers Correctional Facility where Leibel is being held.

    “If a judge tells us to do something, we do it,” he said. “I can’t say what the tactics are, but we get them out of the cell.”

    A judge has yet to issue an extraction order in Leibel’s case. Without one, it’s unclear whether he will be present at his hearing next month.

    “My guess is as good as yours as to what’s going to happen in the future,” Labin said.

    http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...time-officials
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    Autopsy report reveals graphic details in 2016 murder of model in West Hollywood

    By ABC7 News

    WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (KABC) -- An autopsy report was released Wednesday, revealing horrific details into how a woman was killed allegedly by her boyfriend in West Hollywood.

    In May 2016, 30-year-old Iana Kasian was found dead inside of her condominium. Her boyfriend at the time and father of her child, 35-year-old Blake Leibel, was arrested on suspicion of murder.

    He was later charged with one count of murder, mayhem, aggravated mayhem and torture, along with special circumstance allegations of the murder involving torture and mayhem. Those special allegation charges make him eligible for the death penalty.

    Investigators said the model and mother of a then 2-month-old baby had been found in her bed, apparently suffering from blunt force trauma to the head.

    Authorities said Kasian was tortured and mutilated before she was killed and all of her blood was drained from her body.

    Graphic details in the recently released report also indicate that her scalp was missing, leaving her skull fully exposed. Her scalp was never found.

    The report indicates the scalp had been cut at the back of her head, but in other areas it appeared to have been ripped away. The report also stated portions of the right side of her face were torn off, including her right ear.

    There was also an injury to her jaw, which the report said appeared to be human bite marks.

    According to Los Angeles County sheriff's officials, Leibel was arrested by Los Angeles police a week before Kasian's death on suspicion of felony rape. He was out on bail at the time of Kasian's murder.

    Their child was placed in the care of family members after Leibel's arrest. It was unclear if the child was in the home at the time of Kasian's death.

    Kasian's mother Olga filed a $56 million wrongful death lawsuit against Leibel. She is now the guardian of Kasian and Leibel's 1-year-old daughter.

    Leibel is the author of a series of comic books, which he presented at Comic Con in New York in 2008. He is also the writer of the graphic novel "Syndrome" in which the book's plot follows a rogue doctor's quest to isolate the root of evil in the brain and fix it.

    He is also the son of Lorne Leibel, a wealthy Canadian real estate developer who was credited with building more than 30,000 homes in the Toronto area.

    Leibel is also reported to have inherited millions from his late mother's estate.

    http://abc7.com/autopsy-report-revea...-weho/2438090/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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    February 13, 2018

    Accused rich kid torture killer Blake Leibel gets preliminary hearing

    By Brad Hunter
    torontosun.com

    The noose is tightening on accused trustafarian torture killer Blake Leibel.

    The 36-year-old nasty nerd is charged with first -degree murder in the grisly 2016 slaying of his girlfriend Olga Kasian, 30. She is the mother of his daughter.

    Leibel — whose father is Toronto mega-developer Lorne Leibel — is slated to appear in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing.

    If convicted in the murder, Leibel could face a one-way ticket to California’s death row at the notorious San Quentin Prison.

    A trial date is imminent, sources say, predicting that Leibel will face justice by the end of 2018.

    He has pleaded not guilty and none of the accusations has been proven in court.

    The grisly slaying is ranked among the most violent in Los Angeles’ bloody history.

    Cops say that Leibel, inside his Hollywood apartment, painted a mosaic of death and his medium of choice was blood.

    Dr. James Ribe of the Los Angeles County Coroner’s office called the horrific mutilation and knife torture of Kasian “unprecedented outside of wartime.”

    He wrote: “(Kasian’s) entire scalp was traumatically absent and was not found, was not present with the body. Her skull had been stripped down to the surface of the bone … there was no scalp present except for little bits in the back of the neck.”

    Ribe added: “Also portions of the right side of her face were torn away including the right ear and part of the posterior face on the right side, all the way down the jawline.”

    In addition, the coroner said her face was covered in bruises and abrasions, the blood drained from her body. It was estimated she had been tortured for eight agonizing hours.

    Leibel moved to sunny Los Angeles with his brother and other Toronto area rich kids.

    He had hoped to make a name for himself in comics and film. But in an industry that attracts weirdos, Leibel stood out.

    “But even in that world of bad hygiene and general weirdness, Blake was on the outer fringe, ” a source told the Toronto Sun in September.

    Leibel is charged with one count of murder, mayhem, aggravated mayhem and torture, along with special circumstance allegations of the murder involving torture and mayhem.

    http://torontosun.com/news/world/acc...minary-hearing
    Last edited by Moh; 05-07-2018 at 04:38 PM. Reason: Added date

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    Trial in the Most Gruesome Murder Ever in WeHo, if Not the World, Began Today

    By City News Service and Staff
    WEHOville

    Three weeks after his live-in girlfriend gave birth to their daughter, a West Hollywood man murdered the woman and drained all the blood from her body, mirroring the script of a graphic novel he co-wrote, a prosecutor told jurors Friday.

    “He authored the book “Syndrome.” … Just pay close attention to the baby on the cover,” Deputy District Attorney Tannaz Mokayef told jurors during her opening statement in Blake Leibel’s trial, saying it “mimics what happened to the victim, Iana Kasian” in May 2016.

    Leibel, 37, is charged with murder, torture and aggravated mayhem stemming from the 30-year-old woman’s killing in the condominium they shared on Holloway Drive. The murder charge includes the special circumstance allegations of murder by torture and murder by mayhem. Leibel is the son of Lorne Leibel, a wealthy Toronto real estate developer known for his collection of Ferraris At the time of Kasian’s murder, Liebel was married to and had a child with another woman, Amanda Braun, with whom he lived in a Beverly Hills mansion. He filed for divorce from her in July 2015. In August 2015 Braun gave birth to their second son.

    The District Attorney’s Office opted not to seek the death penalty against Leibel, who faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if he is convicted as charged.

    “This case reads like a movie script,” the prosecutor told jurors, adding that it was more like a horror movie about a “gruesome crime” that involved a “prolonged attack” in which Leibel’s girlfriend was “alive for the better part of the mutilation and mayhem.”

    “He followed a script, as you will, in a book he authored – ‘Syndrome’,” Mokayef told the panel at the Airport Branch Courthouse in Los Angeles.

    One of the book’s co-authors is expected to testify that the concept of draining blood out of a victim’s body was thought up by Leibel — with the prosecutor telling jurors that Leibel’s girlfriend was left without any blood in her veins.

    The woman’s nude body, which was covered with a Mickey Mouse blanket that had been used earlier in their newborn daughter’s nursery, was discovered May 26, 2016, in the couple’s blood-spattered master bedroom after Kasian’s mother called authorities to report that she had not been able to reach her daughter, the deputy district attorney said.

    She showed jurors an illustration of a woman in the book and urged them to compare it with the crime scene, saying it’s “almost exactly like what you have” in the case.

    Leibel had barricaded himself inside the master bedroom and came out in boxer shorts after his accountant showed up, with sheriff’s deputies discovering “blood everywhere,” Mokayef said.

    The woman appeared to have been washed thoroughly and was missing her scalp and the right side of her face, and pieces of flesh were found in the room, the prosecutor said. She noted that part of the victim’s scalp and an ear were subsequently discovered in a trash bin at the bottom of a chute outside the condominium.

    The prosecutor said Leibel hadn’t counted on the persistence of his girlfriend’s mother, who initially notified Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies about her daughter’s disappearance one day before her daughter was found dead and then again in a 911 call in which she pleaded, “Help me,” the day her daughter’s body was discovered.

    After briefly consulting with her client, defense attorney Haydeh Takasugi told Superior Court Judge Mark Windham that she would reserve her opening statement until the start of the defense’s portion of the case.

    The victim’s mother, Olga Kasian, who had traveled to the Los Angeles area from the Ukraine to help her daughter with her newborn child, was called as the prosecution’s first witness.

    Through a Russian interpreter, the victim’s mother said she had been helping to care for the baby, who was staying with her at a Los Angeles apartment, and that she never saw her daughter alive after the two went shopping May 23, 2016, to look for a baby stroller. She said she spoke to her daughter once the following afternoon and then never heard from her again.

    “Were you worried about your daughter?” the prosecutor asked.

    “Yes,” the woman responded, noting earlier that the two had been in constant telephonic communication with each other.

    Kasian has filed a civil lawsuit against Leibel, seeking $36 million. It the lawsuit is a transcript of a deposition by Dr. James Ribe of the L.A. County Coroner’s Office in which he describes the circumstances of Kasian’s death as likely to be unprecedented outside of wartime.

    Ribe said Kasian’s “entire scalp was traumatically absent and was not found, was not present with the body. Her skull had been stripped down to the surface of the bone … There was no scalp present except for little bits in the back of the neck.”

    “Also portions of the right side of her face were torn away including the right ear and part of the posterior face on the (right) side, all the way down to the jawline. … As far as the face, there were quite a number of bruises and abrasions on the face, primarily on the left side, the left cheek, and left jaw area, a number of bruises and abrasion, including one which turned out to be a human bite mark…”

    Among the most unusual aspects of Kasian’s death, Ribe said, was “that she had lived for at least eight hours approximately after receiving the scalp injury and the bruise to the collarbone.”

    “I have never seen this before. And I doubt if hardly any forensic pathologists in this country or abroad have even seen this outside of, perhaps, wartime … So it’s extremely rare….”

    https://www.wehoville.com/2018/06/08...d-began-today/
    In the Shadow of Your Wings
    1 A Prayer of David. Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry! Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!

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    Canadian Blake Leibel’s girlfriend may have still been alive when she was mutilated, L.A. murder trial told

    Leibel, a rich kid from Toronto living a lavish Hollywood life as a film producer and graphic novelist, is accused of a brutal murder that, in some ways, mirrored his art

    By JAKE EDMISTON
    edmontonjournal.com

    LOS ANGELES — A detective was about to testify Monday at the trial of a Canadian graphic novelist accused of killing his girlfriend in their Hollywood apartment. Before the testimony started, the prosecutor in the case leaned over and spoke softly to the victim’s mother, sitting in the front row.

    “There’s going to be some rattling photos,” she said.

    But the mother didn’t leave. Olga Kasian stayed sitting in the muggy Los Angeles courtroom while homicide Sgt. William Cotter described photo after photo of the apartment where Kasian’s 30-year-old daughter Iana was found dead, lying on a blood-stained mattress beneath a Mickey Mouse comforter.

    Blake Leibel, the son of wealthy Toronto real estate developer Lorne Leibel, had pleaded not guilty to murder, mayhem and torture in Kasian’s death. She was his girlfriend and the mother of his newborn daughter.

    In his testimony, Sgt. Cotter pointed out blood stains on drapes, on a headboard, on a lamp; a piece of flesh found in the bedding. Then, as directed by Deputy District Attorney Tannaz Mokayef, he described the photo of Iana’s lifeless, naked body, sprawled on the mattress in the master bedroom, with trauma to her head so severe it was unrecognizable.

    “I stood there for a while,” Sgt. Cotter said of the first time he entered the bedroom where Kasian’s body was found.

    It was the second day of the prosecution’s case, focusing on the brutal state Kasian was found in when police finally managed to get into the couple’s Holloway Drive condo, where Leibel had allegedly barricaded himself on May 26, 2016. Mokayef told jurors in her opening statement that she would prove Leibel planned and calculated Kasian’s murder, following a script he took from one of his own graphic novels.

    “This case reads like a movie script,” she said in her opening statement last Friday, according to the Hollywood Reporter. And in many ways, it does seem like it’s a story made for Hollywood: A rich kid from Toronto living a lavish Hollywood life as a film producer and graphic novelist, accused of a brutal murder that, in some ways, mirrored his art. It garnered international attention, in the process turning Kasian’s death into a story about everything else. But on Monday, all the intrigue surrounding the case started to seem misplaced. There was nothing cinematic or lavish in the photos of Kasian, scalped and bruised, missing her eyebrows and her right ear.

    Leibel didn’t look at any of the photo evidence shown at the front of the courtroom. He sat, slumped on his elbows, staring at the desk in front of him. He looked heavier after two years in custody, bulging through his dark suit, with thin hair combed straight and balding at the back — a stark difference from the messy curls he wore at the time of Kasian’s death.

    In the afternoon, Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner Jonathan Lucas — standing in for the now retired examiner who conducted the autopsy — described Kasian’s death in calm, clinical detail. The prosecution showed close-up photos of Kasian’s face with severe “tissue loss,” lying on a plastic-lined coroner’s table.

    “Basically, her scalp is missing from the top of her head,” Lucas said. It appears, he said, that the scalp had been cut by a sharp object and then torn from her head.

    “There’s absence of tissue, we’re looking directly at bone.”

    Perhaps the most disturbing part of Lucas’s testimony was when he explained that Kasian may have been alive while she was mutilated. There were signs, he said, of bleeding — which means Kasian’s heart was beating while she sustained the injuries.

    Kasian’s Ukrainian mother sat for almost all of it with eyes puffed around the edges, looking too exhausted to manage anything but a blank expression. As the prosecution presented the photos of Kasian’s head, you could still make out the face. The mother lurched forward, covering her eyes. But then she straightened herself and looked forward. She pressed on an earpiece, so she could her the translator whispering into a microphone in the row behind her.

    When Dr. Lucas described “defensive wounds” on Kasian’s hands — another indicator she was alive during the ordeal — Olga Kasian stood, slid out of her aisle and walked out, hunching over.

    The trial continues Tuesday and is expected to last until next week.

    http://edmontonjournal.com/news/worl...2-ca3b01637152
    Last edited by aljazres; 06-19-2018 at 11:12 AM.

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    Blood evidence painted gory scene during Blake Leibel murder trial

    torontosun.com

    Bed sheets stained with bloody handprints proved a key piece of evidence Wednesday on the fourth day of the murder trial of a Toronto-born novelist.

    Blake Leibel, 37, is accused of torturing and then killing his girlfriend and mother of their two-year-old daughter, Ukranian model Iana Kasian in west Hollywood.

    He’s accused of subjecting Kasian, 30, to more than eight hours of torment before killing her in May 2016 — torment that included cutting off her right ear and eyebrows.

    Leibel, the son of a wealthy Toronto family, has pleaded not guilty to murder, torture and mayhem.

    Testifying in a Los Angeles courtroom, blood spatter expert Tom Bevel noted conspicuous similarities between bloodied handprints on a sheet found in a trash chute of the condo belonging to the accused and Leibel — who is missing part of his pinkie finger on his right hand.

    Bevel testified the condo showed signs of extensive cleaning, and helped paint for the prosecution how blood evidence found at the scene documented the terrible murder endured by Kasian.

    Crime scene photos of apartment surfaces sprayed with chemicals that glow fluorescent in the presence of blood mixed with cleaning products supported Bevel’s assertions.

    Testimony on previous days revealed Kasian’s body had been drained of nearly half of her blood.

    University of Southern California anatomy professor Michael Habib testified on Wednesday that her legs must have been elevated over her head to sustain the levels of blood loss suffered by the victim — whose scalp had been sliced away while she was still alive.

    Other photos shown in court show evidence of a large amount of blood in the bathtub, suggesting her wounds were flushed with running water from the faucet to prevent clotting.

    Leibel’s trial continues on Thursday.

    http://torontosun.com/news/crime/blo...l-murder-trial

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    'This is absurd': Lawyer friend of Blake Leibel banned from murder trial after allegedly tailing juror in car

    It was a startling sideshow in a trial that so far has been fixated on the excruciating death of Iana Kasian, a 30-year-old mother to a newborn

    By JAKE EDMISTON
    edmontonjournal.com

    LOS ANGELES — An entertainment lawyer and friend of Canadian graphic novelist Blake Leibel was thrown out of a Los Angeles courthouse and banned from watching Leibel’s murder trial after he allegedly tailed a juror in his car.

    Before the trial resumed for its sixth day on Monday morning, Judge Mark Windham called Canadian attorney Jeremy Tenser to the front. The court had received “a credible description” of Tenser following one of the jurors in his vehicle, the judge said. “This juror was so frightened by the behaviour that she described that this court was forced to relieve her.”

    It was a startling sideshow in a trial that so far has been fixated on the excruciating death of Iana Kasian, a 30-year-old mother to a newborn. She was found scalped and drained of her blood – a process medical experts testified would have taken hours, likely while she was conscious.

    Tenser, an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles, represented Leibel in several Hollywood deals. The pair know each other from their time at Western University in London, Ont., Tenser says. And since Leibel was accused of the murder in 2016, Tenser has been his most vocal supporter. Until Monday, he had watched the trial unfold from a seat in the Los Angeles courtroom, usually directly behind Leibel.

    “I had no idea a juror was in front of me. That’s absurd. This is absurd,” Tenser told the judge. “Your honour, please listen.… You’re nodding at me but you’re not listening to me.”

    The juror in question was excused Thursday after a private meeting with Windham. In dismissing her, Windham thanked her for going above and beyond the service expected of a juror. An alternate was selected to take her place.

    Last week, Windham had ordered Tenser to stay away from all jurors, witnesses and attorneys in the case – an order that stemmed from Tenser’s conversation with a witness who collaborated on a graphic novel with Leibel. (The writer, Robert Ryan, testified on the creative process that went into making the book, Syndrome, which has scenes somewhat similar to Kasian’s killing. Ryan was outside court after testifying when Tenser approached to discuss reprinting the book, since it would now enjoy a heightened profile.)

    Because Tenser had already received a warning, Judge Windham cited him for contempt of court and scheduled a hearing for later this week. But Tenser continued to argue that he should be added to Leibel’s defence team.

    “I believe my client is an innocent man who was framed for murder,” he said.

    “I’m not going to allow you to substitute as counsel,” Windham said, warning Tenser he would cite him again for contempt.

    Tenser persisted, rattling off case law, the United States Constitution and the criminal code from a piece of paper.

    “Mr. Tenser,” the judge said, exasperated, “I’m citing you for contempt again.”

    At that, Tenser left the courtroom followed two detectives who investigated the murder and have been assisting the prosecution. Outside, as he waited for an elevator, Tenser stared at the detectives, holding up at pocket copy of the Declaration of Independence.

    “Get away from me,” he said as the detectives moved to follow him into the waiting elevator.

    “Just get in the elevator,” one of the detectives said.

    “I’ll take the stairs,” he said, and he did.

    Leibel’s attorney Haydeh Takasugi distanced herself from Tenser in an interview outside court. “I have absolutely no dealings with Mr. Tenser,” she said. “Nor do I discuss anything with him.”

    Later Monday, Takasugi presented her brief defence case, calling a single witness to refute the prosecution’s disturbing portrait of Kasian as she died, watching the blood run past her face in a bathtub while she was unable to move or scream.

    The prosecution’s anatomy expert previously testified that because Kasian died of blood loss through the wounds in her head, she would have needed to be lying with her head lower than her knees – likely in a bathtub with rushing water to stop the wounds from closing. With the blood rushing to her head, she would have been alive to watch but unable to move her blood-drained extremities, the expert found.

    Takasugi called Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner Jonathan Lucas, who had been previously called by the prosecution. Lucas said there were no wounds in the larynx that would have stopped Kasian from screaming. There was also no evidence in the autopsy report to suggest she would have been conscious in the bathtub, he said.

    “There’s really no findings that would support that one way or the other,” he said.
    Asked if she would have been able to watch the blood leave her body, Lucas responded: “I have no idea.”

    Lucas did agree with prosecutors that Kasian would have been alive while she was scalped and for roughly six hours afterward.

    After Lucas left the stand, Takasugi announced Leibel would not testify – a question that has hung over this trial for days. Judge Windham spoke directly to Leibel, making sure he was confident in his decision to stay silent.

    “If you were to testify, now would be the time,” Windham said.

    Leibel didn’t change his mind. The defence rested.

    Closing arguments will begin Tuesday.

    http://edmontonjournal.com/news/worl..._autoplay=true
    Last edited by aljazres; 06-19-2018 at 11:12 AM.

  10. #10
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    Accused killer Blake Leibel was jealous of baby, prosecution says

    By Brad Hunter
    torontosun.com

    Blake Leibel was in a snit.

    The Toronto trustafarian accused of brutally murdering his girlfriend had been spoiled rotten his whole life.

    So when Iana Kasian gave birth to their daughter in the spring of 2016, the 37-year-old threw his toys from the pram and exploded in rage.

    Kasian, 30, was doting on the baby and paying less attention to the real estate heir.

    So says the prosecution, who have finally unveiled what they believe to be the motive to the heinous crime the wannabe Hollywood player is accused of.

    “I’m sure you’ve asked yourself many times,” deputy district attorney Beth Silverman told jurors Tuesday in her closing arguments in a Los Angeles courtroom, “how could another human being do that to someone he supposedly loved?

    “There has to be a level of frustration, thinking to yourself, ‘I just don’t understand how a human could do such a thing.’”

    Homicide detectives have described Kasian’s torture murder as among the worst in the city’s long, bloody history.

    Silverman told the court it was born out of a grey, throbbing jealousy.

    Kasian’s mother, Olga, had travelled to L.A. from Ukraine to be present for the birth of her granddaughter and lend a hand to the new mom.

    Leibel was allegedly having none of it and wouldn’t let Olga be present for the big event.

    But after the baby was born, the model increasingly spent time at her mother’s apartment and not with the pouting Leibel, Silverman said.

    “What happens after the baby comes home? Within four days, she’s out. She can’t stay in the apartment with him,” Silverman told the jury. “He’s jealous because now the baby’s in the picture and it’s taking away his attention.”

    Silverman added: “What is the ultimate act of power and control? It’s taking somebody’s life, right? Taking away their future. Taking away everything they dreamed they were going to be: A mother, a parent, a daughter, a wife.”

    For most of the first six days of the trial, prosecutors painted a macabre canvas of Kasian’s insidious injuries and her long, agonizing journey to death.

    And they called Leibel’s 2010 graphic novel the template for the horrors that would ensue in their West Hollywood apartment.

    Leibel’s lawyer, Haydeh Takasugi, said in her closing argument that his novel ‘Syndrome’ was like gluten in the prosecution’s case: Needless filler.

    Instead, she told the jury Leibel was no criminal mastermind and noted he didn’t try to escape after the murder.

    “Why wouldn’t he leave?” she asked.

    Takasugi added that white garbage bags in the condo’s dumpster contained some of Kasian’s body parts, bloody towels and one of Leibel’s discarded T-shirts. But three of the bags did not have the accused killer’s DNA and instead were from an unknown male.

    The defence lawyer, however, did not offer an alternative theory of who may have murdered Kasian.

    Silver scoffed at the idea anyone but Leibel was the killer.

    “How do you explain all this mammoth amount of evidence that all points to one person?” she said. “Reasonable doubt is the standard in this case – the key word is reasonable.

    “Is it possible that a spaceship came down and landed inside this apartment and some Martians committed this crime? Yeah, it’s possible. But is it reasonable? No.”

    The jury is expected to begin deliberations Wednesday.

    If convicted, Leibel faces the death penalty or life in prison.

    http://torontosun.com/news/world/acc...osecution-says

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