Pubdate: Tue, 12 Jun 2001
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2001 Hollinger Canadian Newspapers
Contact:  http://vvv.com/home/timesc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Richard Watts

LSD BINGE LINKED TO KILLING

Lawyer Tells Court Man Too Impaired To Be Convicted Of Murdering Girl, 11

One aimless punk and an LSD-eating contest may add up to one dead 
child but it still doesn't equal murder, court heard Monday.

Roderick Jonathan Patten is charged with first-degree  murder in the 
July 31, 1996, death of Jessica States, an 11-year-old Port Alberni 
girl known for hanging out at a baseball park near her home. Patten, 
now 23, is pleading not guilty.

The evidence amassed against Patten includes DNA  matches to semen 
taken from Jessica's body after it was found on Aug. 1, 1996, and a 
videotaped interview in which Patten admits to killing the girl.

But in B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria Monday, Patten's lawyer Jim 
Heller said Jessica's death wasn't murder. Heller said his client had 
consumed too much alcohol, marijuana and LSD to form the clear intent 
to actually kill the girl. Instead, it should be manslaughter, Heller 
said.

In his opening remarks to the jury, Heller said that around the time 
of the killing Patten's life was going nowhere and he was making 
money buying and trading drugs.

``He was a punk. He was living an undirected life,'' Heller said.

On the day of the killing, Patten and some pals got into a ,game of 
macho challenges over who could eat the most LSD. ``Then, in some 
ridiculous gesture, (Patten) took a whole lot of it,'' said Heller.

``He lost the ability to appreciate his actions. He lost the ability 
to appreciate the result of his actions,'' Heller told the three 
women and nine men on the jury.

Heller promised the jury that Patten will take the stand to relate 
what happened, though he doesn't have to under the Canadian justice 
system.

``He wants to tell you his side of this tragic story,'' said Heller. 
``He awoke to his nightmare too, along with the rest of Port 
Alberni.''

In his opening to the jury, Crown counsel David Kidd told the jury it 
could expect to hear pathology experts testify about the sexual 
nature of injuries found on Jessica's body.

It would hear how semen was extracted and sent for DNA analysis. That 
DNA analysis from the semen was later matched to DNA analysis 
performed on blood samples taken from Patten, Kidd told the jury.

And he promised a videotaped interview in which Patten admits to 
killing Jessica.

``The Crown is confident you will find beyond any reasonable shadow 
of doubt that Mr. Patten is responsible in law for the first-degree 
murder of Jessica States,'' he said.

Kidd painted a verbal picture of Jessica as a ``kid who lived for baseball.''

``She was always at the ballpark which was just two doors down from 
her home,'' said Kidd. ``This was her turf.  This was her 
neighbourhood.''

He said most of the ball players knew Jessica because she was always 
at the games pestering teams to be appointed bat girl. If no team 
wanted her to mind the bats, she headed off to the edges of the park 
to chase fly and foul balls. Kids like Jessica could earn a dollar 
for every ball they returned to the concession stand.

Dianne States, Jessica's mother, described her daughter as a little 
tomboy. On July 31, 1996, Jessica ate supper at home before heading 
to the nearby ballpark around 6:20 p.m., the court heard. Jessica's 
dad was getting ready for bed because he was working an early shift 
the next day.

By 9:30, Dianne States was concerned enough to go out to the park and 
look for Jessica. When she could find no sign of her daughter, she 
headed for home.

``I returned home and woke up my husband and told him something was wrong.''

Steve Adams, a Port Alberni resident who volunteers with the local 
search-and-rescue society, testified how he found Jessica's body.

Adams described how searchers and volunteers formed a tight line and 
began a systematic grid search of a wooded park area across the 
street from the ballpark. It was during this search that Adams 
noticed a fallen tree stripped of its bark. Close by, bark was laid 
around in a patchwork pattern.

``It was strictly pieces of bark,'' said Adams. ``I flipped one over 
and I found the body.''
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