Mark David Latunski Michigan cannibal found guilty of first degree murder of gay app dating man Kevin Bacon sentenced to life behind bars after killing and eating body parts of victim.
A Michigan man was convicted of killing a man and eating body parts of his victim whom he met on a gay dating app. The guilty verdict comes a month after the assailant admitting to the slaying last month, despite his defense attorney seeking to plead not guilty by insanity.
Mark Latunski, 53, aka Michigan cannibal was found guilty Wednesday of first-degree murder by Circuit Court Judge Matthew Stewart after almost two days of testimony, during which the defendant conceded dismembering and eating body parts of his victim, Kevin Bacon.
‘The court finds that this is a crime of cold calculation,’ Stewart said, according to Mlive.com. ‘Kevin Bacon’s death was Mark Latunski’s design.’
Leading into the hearing, Stewart had a choice between first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter following Latunski’s open murder plea last month, MLive reported.
Following Wednesday’s guilty verdict, Latunski was sentenced to life in prison, FOX2 reported.
‘That’s not what Kevin wanted. Kevin wanted a fetish,’
Latunski conceded luring Bacon to his Bennington Township home in December where he then stabbed the victim in the back and removed parts of body before eating them. He reportedly told cops he even cut off and ate Bacon’s testicles.
The perp and victim met on Grindr, a dating app for gay, bisexual and trans men.
Shiawassee County Prosecutor Scott Koerner argued during the hearing Latunski had time to change his mind before killing Bacon. The prosecution also told of Latunski telling officers at his arrest about buying a dehydrator to make jerky out of Bacon’s muscles.
‘That’s not what Kevin wanted. Kevin wanted a fetish,’ Koerner reportedly said. ‘He wanted to be protected. He wanted to make sure he was going to go home.’
Latunski’s lawyer Mary Chartier said her client did not plan on killing Bacon, and when police knocked on his door, he let cops in even though he knew there was a dead body in his basement, Mlive.com reported.
‘A person in Mr. Latunski’s shoes, in his mindset, has to have fully evaluated the consequences of the killing,’ she said.
Latunski also asked Bacon over text if he had medical issues that would get in the way of their fetish, which Chartier said he would not have done if he wanted to kill him before the victim came over.
She also insisted her client did not understand the gravity of his crime and that Latunski told police he didn’t plan anything connected to Bacon’s slaying, according to the outlet.
Bacon’s corpse was found by police hanging by the ankles from the ceiling of Latunski’s basement.
Latunski originally pleaded not guilty in an insanity defense before reversing course on September 22, just three weeks before he was due to go to trial on charges of murder and mutilation of a dead body. He will now spend the rest of his life behind bars.
