The two men met in the early morning of November 1, 2019 in a hotel room in Zurich-Albisrieden to consume drugs and have sex. According to the indictment, the now 41-year-old Brazilian hit the hairdresser’s head and body countless times during or after sex and stabbed him with a knife.

“I was intoxicated with drugs and saw a black panther in front of me, who was walking upright on two legs and was walking towards me with a knife in his hand,” said the suspect on Friday in front of the Zurich District Court. He believed it was because of the crystal meth the hairdresser injected him. “The monster wanted to attack me and I fought until I realized it was human,” he said. He couldn’t stop hitting and stabbing the “panther”. “I couldn’t control myself.” The accused then left the room. He later returned to see “if it was just paranoia,” as he said, returning to the trial.

The Brazilian, who has lived in Switzerland since 2011 and married a Swiss man two years later, is the father of two adult children. He worked as a dishwasher and kitchen helper in a restaurant in the city of Zurich. He enters into the act, later he spoke of “having caused death”. When the judge asked why he first mentioned the alleged panther at the trial, he said: “I was afraid that I would then be put in the psychiatric clinic.” The man was arrested two days after the crime and is on remand.

The victim is a 48-year-old divorced Portuguese from Madeira. The hairstylist and make-up artist known as Cajo has lived and worked in Zurich since 2017. On his Facebook profile, he showed his work with several personalities from Portugal – including a photo with soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo from 2015. The victim’s body was found by the cleaning lady on the floor of the hotel room – dealt with countless beatings and Knife wounds all over the body. He died of asphyxiation from inhalation of blood or bleeding to death.

The court called in the psychiatrist Frank Urbaniok as an expert at the trial. In his report, Urbaniok assumes a slightly reduced criminal liability for drugs. If the court should assume a psychotic derailment and a distortion of reality – as the accused dies in today’s trial first mentioned – then one must assume a significantly higher reduction in guilt, said Urbaniok.

The prosecutor charges the accused with murder, the defense attorney wants an acquittal self-inflicted U.Nsanespeed. She demands a psychiatric reassessment of her client by Urbaniok regarding the drug intoxication and the black panther. The court will decide this early next week. If it rejects a new report, the prosecutor and the defense attorney will hold their pleadings on Friday.