Twitchell found guilty of first degree murder
Posted Apr 12, 2011 7:05 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
An aspiring filmmaker has been convicted of murdering and dismembering a stranger in a plot that matched a movie script.
31 year-old Mark Twitchell claimed he accidentally killed Johnny Altinger in October 2008 in a publicity hoax gone wrong.
But the jury opted to convict Twitchell on the original charge of first-degree murder, believing the Crown, that Twitchell lured Altinger to a south Edmonton garage in a horrific plot to become a serial killer.
Court heard Twitchell later cut up Altinger, tried to burn the remains and then dumped them down a sewer.
The death matched a murder in a slasher movie Twitchell had filmed and which he wrote about on his laptop.
During victim impact statements, Altinger’s mother told the court that she doesn’t believe in the death penalty, but says that Twitchell needs to die a slow death every day of his life.
A first degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no parole for 25 years.
