Your love is so edible to me

Okay, I first saw this with the Oregon Mayor case on Wednesday, and now again with this dude -- since when have newspaper reporters and the AP decided to throw in some bizarre piece of additional info in the last sentence? Is this just a test to see if we're reading to the end of the stories? If so, maybe try giving away a free iPhone or MacBook Air or something.

Grocery Stocker Found Guilty in Oklahoma Cannibalistic Plot Case

Friday , February 29, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. —

A jury found Kevin Underwood guilty of first-degree murder Friday in the killing of a 10-year-old girl as part of a cannibalistic plot.

The 28-year-old former grocery stocker showed no emotion as the verdict was announced about a half-hour after the jury began deliberations.

Judge Candace Blalock ordered jurors to return to court Monday morning to start the penalty phase of Underwood's trial. Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty.

Jurors began deliberating shortly after 10 a.m. CST following closing arguments in which Cleveland County District Attorney Greg Mashburn said it would take jurors longer to pick a foreman than to determine Underwood's guilt.

"It's the worst of the worst," Mashburn said. "His plan is to butcher someone like an animal."

In his closing argument, Defense attorney Matthew Haire did not dispute Underwood's guilt. He has said the defense focus will be on trying to prevent Underwood from receiving a death penalty.

"He was a lonely, very troubled, reclusive young man," Haire said. "There's something terribly wrong here."

Haire accused prosecutors of overwhelming jurors with gruesome evidence meant to shock them, but had little to do with the case. Evidence included multiple photographs of the victim and a cutting board that prosecutors said Underwood used to strike the victim on the head and back.

"We know what happened in this case," Haire said. "We know it through the words of Mr. Underwood. Isn't that bad enough."

Underwood's videotaped confession was played in open court Thursday.

In the confession, Underwood said he lured Jamie Rose Bolin, his upstairs neighbor, into his apartment, hit her with the cutting board, smothered her with his hands, sexually assaulted the body and nearly cut her head off as part of a fantasy involving cannibalism.

Underwood, 28, told police the killing was part of a fantasy fueled by bizarre Internet pornography. He said his plan was to kill and eat his victim.

"It started off as cannibalism ... I wanted to know what it tasted like, and just the thought of eating someone was appealing to me," Underwood said in the videotaped confession, which came in an interview with FBI agents.

Underwood also said his fantasies involving cannibalism began about the time he started taking the antidepressant Lexapro. Defense attorneys plan to call witnesses during the penalty phase of the trial who will testify that Underwood often appeared detached from reality and was using the drug.