Jarrod Wyatt, a U.S. cage fighter, is charged with a horrific crime of removing the beating heart of his training partner Taylor Powell and ripping him apart. He insists that he snapped after drinking tea spiked with hallucinogenic mushrooms — causing him to believe that the partner was possessed by the devil.
The police found the 26-year-old standing naked over his friend’s body with body parts strewn around the room in Klamath, California. The trainer, 21, bled to death after the removal of his heart.
It is sometimes said that the best criminal defense is often found in the worst cases since insanity is more believable when the act is incomprehensible. This would certainly fulfill that criteria but Wyatt will have a difficult time with an insanity defense which has been made more difficult since the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, (here and here).
For the full story, click here.
Gingerbaker
1, June 1, 2010 at 9:29 am
Forget about the violent murder. This guy should be in Federal prison for his haircut
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YES! Someone had to say it.
COVER YOUR HEART, INDY!
Now that’s just plain funny. 😀
LJM:
“It is entertainment for pussies pure and simple.
Spoken like a true keyboard warrior.”
No, I changed that to many are pussies. And I am not talking about the fighters but the people who watch this stuff. The Walter Mitty types who achieve a vicarious pleasure watching others do something they would never do in their wildest dreams.
I admit to liking MMA. It takes courage, strength, stamina, and skill. I do not know much about the sport and only became aware of it last year.
Shane Carwin (11 wins 0 losses) a humble, working mechanical engineer and apparent gentleman, dispels the myth that most MMA fighters are Neanderthal knuckle draggers.
And who could not love the fighting lady, Gina Carano…
KALI-MAAA!!
LJM,
I said the sport was barbaric, not the fans (necessarily, although many of them I’ve met are). “A barbaric sport for barbaric people in what is becoming a barbaric society.” You have taken a generic assertion as a specific assertion. Just because some fans aren’t barbarians doesn’t mean none of them are. That’s the fallacy of distribution. As a blood sport it appeals to the basest instincts and most non-trained fans aren’t usually there for the technical displays. They are there for the same reason NASCAR fans are there.
To see someone get hurt.
Now contrast this to any traditional MA tournament you’ve ever been in or seen. The goals there are technical victory, not just pummeling someone into submission.
It is entertainment for pussies pure and simple.
Spoken like a true keyboard warrior.
Buddha, I’ve been in the dojo for many years and in a few fights. I believe with all my heart that violence is never a solution to a disagreement and should only be used in self-defense. That said, MMA is my favorite sport. At the end of many fights, which more usually end with grappling submissions and judges’ decisions than knock-outs, the fighters embrace and show more respect towards each other.
There’s nothing wrong with not liking it, but again, there’s no reason to judge the people who do.
Got it.
To a lay person he certainly looks insane, but he may not actually have a case if his state has forbidden voluntary intoxication as a defense.
“Knockout rates are lower in MMA and in boxing but I suppose if you think they are both barbaric then I’m wasting my breath.”
That would be a correct assessment. You can add football to that list too.
I mean lower in MMA than in boxing.
should say
Knockout rates are higher in MMA than in boxing.
Knockout rates are lower in MMA and in boxing but I suppose if you think they are both barbaric then I’m wasting my breath.
If we are measuring barbarity by life altering injuries then football would be much more barbaric than MMA.
I understand that it is violent, but I just don’t think it is any worse than boxing or football. Even in football people are trying to inflict harm on each other, or else Ronnie Lott wouldn’t have had a job and the hit on Anquain Boldin two years ago was worse than anything Ive ever seen in an MMA fight.
http://www.mmafacts.com/images/FE/chain226siteType8/site195/client/HOPKINS%20MMA%20STUDY.pdf
Wrestling, no. Objective: control of your opponent. Much like Judo.
Boxing, yes. Objective: to inflict a concussion hard enough to render someone unconscious or fight until one person is otherwise incapable.
By the way, it’s only your assumption that someone is not trying to kill another. Just as there are those who would approach it as a game, there are those who approach it from the sadistic desire to harm others. As to number of deaths, as a statistical matter, boxing has been around much longer than MMA ergo it has a larger sample space to draw from in re raw number of deaths. But deaths (since killing your opponent in an MMA is forbidden by law in contractual relations and for criminal purposes) are not the right statistic to measure the barbarity of MMA. The proper statistic to look at would be life-altering injuries sustained. Dollars to donuts there are a lot more serious injuries for MMA fighters just as there are more serious injuries for linemen in football. Guys who went into MMA thinking they were badasses and ended up needing a walker or a knee replacement. The human body can only absorb X amount of damage before something permanently breaks.
Buddha,
There are many rules in sanctioned MMA fights. Its not a no holds bar fight to the death. In that manner it is no different from any sport that is violent.
Buddha
Nobody is trying to kill anyone. More people have died in boxing matches than in sanctioned MMA fights. Many of the fighters in MMA a have been highly respected martial artists.
So you think wrestling and boxing are barbaric as well?
Let’s recap: he and his friends got together, BOIL PSYCHEDELIC MUSHROOMS IN A POT ON THE STOVE, and then he cuts his friend’s heart and eyes out and starts BOILING THEM IN A POT IN THE STOVE. This seems perfectly logical to me. I don’t see how he is going to get off on an insanity defense.
The last time I did shrooms I was clocked going 10 MPH in a 70 MPH zone. It is not for the weak at heart. I was told to go home it was after all in between shift changes.