Trial Hears Cop Smelled Death, Chemical in Magnotta’s Apartment

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Const. Peter Devola, who was the first officer to enter Luka Magnotta’s apartment, revealed at the trial to have smelled death and strong chemicals at almost four days after Jun Lin was dismembered there. Const. Devola revealed on Tuesday that no one was inside apartment 208 in a west Montreal building where he answered a call around suppertime on May 29, 2012.

According to the officer, he was sent there by his sergeant to investigate after a torso was found in an alley outside. Devola explained that “once I entered the apartment I was struck by a strong chemical smell,” adding that “I have never smelled something so strong. It smelled like a place that was cleaned with, let’s say, Javel.” Devola stated that “also it was mixed with maybe a smell of cadaver, which I’ve smelled before in the past.”  Earlier, another officer has already testified that police initially thought the torso in the alley was Magnotta’s but later the internet video led them to find out that Magnotta was not the victim but a suspect.

Magnotta has confessed to have killed Lin but wants the jury to find him not criminally responsible due to schizophrenia and other disorders. Cross-examining Const. Devola on Tuesday morning, Magnotta’s lawyer, Luc Leclair, displayed photos showing a lot of blood on a table in Magnotta’s apartment and asked that “the table certainly wasn’t cleaned very well, if it was cleaned at all.” Devola alleged that “I guess, yes, it wasn’t cleaned very well. It wasn’t a good job of cleaning.”