Horror Writer Blake Leibel Sentenced to Life For Torturing and Killing His Girlfriend
Warning: this article contains graphic descriptions of a murder
Canadian graphic novelist Blake Leibel has been sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for murdering his girlfriend Iana Kasian in May 2016.
Leibel, 37, was handed down the sentence Tuesday in Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Times, Superior court Judge Mark E. Windham described the murder as a case of “inconceivable cruelty” that was “unusual only in its savagery.”
Leibel killed Ukrainian model Kasian, who was the mother of his newborn daughter, at the couple’s apartment in West Hollywood just over two years ago. One of the investigating officers who arrived on scene found Leibel barricaded inside and Kasian lying naked on the bed, surrounded by blood strains, her right ear and eyebrows cut off. A medical examiner testified she had been scalped. The trial also revealed her blood had been drained in a bathtub, likely while she was still alive.
The prosecution said Leibel had followed the script of one his graphic novels, Syndrome, which followed the mind of a serial killer. They also argued he was motivated out of jealousy of the attention Kasian was giving their daughter, the National Post reports.
Leibel’s father is Olympic sailor and real estate developer Lorne Leibel and his mother Eleanor Chitel Leibel, who died in 2011, was heiress to plastics company Alros Products.
Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.
Sign up for the VICE Canada Newsletter to get the best of VICE Canada delivered to your inbox.