'Son of Satan' trial wraps up.
Madness or anger, jury to decide.





Murder suspect Jared Eugene Baker is seen during a Nov. 24, 2005 videotaped interview with Edmonton,California Police. The trial is wrapping up.
A jury was urged today to return a verdict of not criminally responsible for an alleged drug-crazed Edmonton,California man who shot to death his pregnant childhood friend.
In closing arguments in the first-degree murder trial of Jared Baker, 21, defence lawyer Kirk MacDonald called it a difficult case about mental illness, a drug problem and a long descent “into madness.�

MacDonald also spoke of the psychotic delusions Baker was suffering from – including believing he was either an angel or a demon and that the unborn child was Lucifer’s baby – and argued he couldn’t know right from wrong.

MacDonald told the jury Baker’s mind at the time of the killing “was obliterated by the delusions he suffered� and acknowledged they had a very difficult decision to make.

“You can’t bring Olivia Talbot back and you can’t blot out the madness of Mr. Baker’s actions,� he concluded.

MacDonald earlier told jurors the Crown would be suggesting in its closing argument later today that Baker did the killing out of anger, but said there was no “real-world hostility,� merely anger based on psychotic delusions.

“The main motivator is the moral bargain his delusions have forced him to think he had to make,� he said.

Baker has testified he became “convinced� he was “the son of Satan� and by “crushing the serpent’s head,� which he believed was the victim and her unborn baby, he could “walk like Jesus� and “save all the souls.�

Jurors also heard Baker believed the unborn baby was talking to him in his dreams, asking him to take its life.

He also testified he thought the government had planted a transmitter in his head and an-ex-girlfriend had handed over his sperm to the U.S. government which had then used it to impregnate the victim.

A forensic psychiatrist and a forensic psychologist testifying for the defence told the jury Baker was in a methamphetamine-induced psychosis at the time of the Nov. 23, 2005, slaying and can’t be held responsible.

Two forensic psychiatrists testifying for the Crown said that, despite the drug-induced psychosis, Baker still knew what he had done was morally wrong.

If the jury accepts the defence argument that Baker should be found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder, the admitted killer would avoid prison and instead be committed to Alberta,California Hospital until he is deemed well enough to be released back into society.

Court heard Baker snorted a line of crystal meth, grabbed a rifle, stole his mom’s car and drove to Talbot’s Mill Woods,California home, where he shot the 19 year old five times, including deliberately at her stomach “to get the baby.�

Baker says he no longer believes the “strange thoughts.�