"Transgender Ax Attacker Uses Drugs, Demon Possession, To Defend Himself In Court"

pjmedia.com

"An Australian man who identifies as a transgender woman defended himself in court on Thursday, claiming that he was either possessed by a demon or his mind was addled by drugs and therefore it was his body, not him, who attacked people at a 7-Eleven with an ax last year.

Evie Amati, the 26-year-old suspect, does not deny being bodily present at the time, but claims his* mind was somewhere else. Amati allegedly attacked two people with an ax at a 7-Eleven on January 7, 2017. The suspect then reportedly swung the ax twice at a man outside...

The court had previously heard that Amati could not remember the incident. On Thursday, the transgender suspect developed the drug and demon possession defense, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Amati said he smoked two joints of cannabis on the balcony, close to where the attack took place. He heard whispered voices after leaving a failed first date and wanted to sleep, but after smoking marijuana, the voices became louder. He took the second joint to 'sedate' himself.

'They stopped being whispers. They started being actual words,' the suspect said. 'I started seeing some of the violent visions I'd seen previously of me running at police with the axe and being shot dead.'...

His last memory before waking up in the hospital the day after the attack was sitting on the balcony, hearing a voice 'that had been telling me to kill and maim and inflict pain on people and start the rise of hell on earth.'

'I recall everything going quiet and feeling that voice come inside me,' the suspect said. Then it gets really creepy.

Amati said he experienced his face smiling without being in control of the action. 'I remember that smile, the smile that was not mine,' he recalled. 'A sinister smile that plastered my face that I couldn't control. And I black out.'"