A MAN who strangled his girlfriend to death at Metford because he thought she was a "demon" has been found guilty of murder after a jury found the psychosis he was suffering was caused solely by using LSD and cannabis.
Jordan Miller was on Tuesday found guilty of murdering his girlfriend, 18-year-old Emerald Wardle, at a home in Galway Crescent in June, 2020.
There was no dispute it was Miller who killed Ms Wardle; he confessed that night, telling police he thought his girlfriend was a "demon" who was "sucking the life out of him."
But Mr Miller had pleaded not guilty to murder and raised a defence of mental health impairment, with the two-and-a-half week trial in Newcastle Supreme Court focusing on his mental state around the time of the killing and what caused him to be in a "psychotic state".
The prosecution case was that Miller's mental state was a result of drug-induced psychosis, caused solely by using LSD and cannabis in the days before Ms Wardle was killed.
The defence said Miller was suffering from a first episode of psychosis, in the form of an underlying chronic schizophrenia.
His defence also raised a partial defence of excessive self-defence and, seperately, said Miller did not have the requisite intent to be guilty of murder because he did not know he had killed a human being when he strangled Ms Wardle.
But after deliberating for about 12 hours, the jury returned on Tuesday and found Miller guilty of murder, rejecting the defence that he had a mental health impairment at the time of the killing.
Miller hung his head and closed his eyes when the verdict was read.
He will face a sentence hearing in August.
More to come.
