A former mixed-martial artist who ripped out his friend’s tongue and still-beating heart while high on mushrooms has pleaded guilty to murder.
Jarrod Wyatt, now 29, killed Taylor Powell, 21, on March 21, 2010, in northern California during a bad, bad trip brought on by psychedelic mushroom tea.
Local sheriff’s deputies and Yurok Tribal Police found him naked and covered in blood, reports the Times-Standard:
…officers found Powell dead on the couch, his chest cut open, his heart, tongue and the skin of his face removed, court documents said. An autopsy determined that the organs had been removed while Powell was still alive. What was later determined to be Powell’s heart was found charred in a wood-burning stove in the residence…
Wyatt’s only professional fight.
Wyatt also removed his eyes.
The two friends supposedly believed God and the Devil had overtaken them to wage an epic battle between good and evil. Wyatt told cops he cooked the heart because he thought Powell, the Devil, was still alive.
Prosecutors never bought Wyatt’s story that the mushrooms were to blame for the attack.
Wyatt originally pleaded not guilty, then added a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. But last week he struck a deal, pleading guilty to “first degree murder involving mayhem.” He’ll serve two sentences of 25 years to life, making him eligible for parole in 2062.
“I wanted him to admit this wasn’t the product of drug delusion,” Del Norte County District Attorney Jon Alexander said.
According to his fighter profile, Wyatt’s pro record was 1-0-0.