Zarate’s attorney asks for drug test

Accused killer may have been in drug stupor, attorney says:

The last time I posted anything about accused killer Jonathan Zarate I thought the judge had denied his attorney’s request for toxicology reports. Zarate’s attorney is claiming that Zarate was in a marijuana laced with PCP stupor when he brutally beat, stabbed, dismembered, hid the body, then tried to dump the remains of 16-year-old Jennifer Parks into the Passaic River. A reader corrected me and said the judge had, in fact, approved the request for a toxicology report. Now Zarate’s attorney is requesting two bags of marijuana and blood from his client to be analyzed by a lab.

Mazawey said he was merely seeking the scientific data to bolster a February finding by forensic psychiatrist Diana Riccoli that Zarate’s diminished mental capacity may be the result of several years of continued use of marijuana laced with PCP and alcohol. The abuse could have contributed to a “state of de-realization” that would have permitted Zarate to detach himself mentally from his actions and precluded him from giving informed consent before talking to authorities.

So basically all this delay is to try to get Zarate’s confession to be ruled inadmissible. I think the fact that Zarate tried so meticulously to cover up his crime by enlisting the aid of others shows that Zarate has no mental defect. Unless you want to count being a murderous bastard.