Defence lawyers argue man accused of double murder believed he was in a video game

Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam admitted in court earlier this week that he killed Richard Jones, 68, and Dianna Mah-Jones, 65, but is maintaining his original plea of not guilty.

Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam maintains not guilty plea despite admitting to killings

Cory Correia · CBC News · Posted: Jan 31, 2020 12:05 AM EST | Last Updated: January 31, 2020

Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam is pictured in the prisoner's dock Thursday as he watches the video of his interrogation in relation to a 2017 double homicide. (Felicity Don)

Lawyers for the defence and Crown argued over the mental state of Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam on Thursday in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver where the defendant is on trial for a 2017 double homicide.

The 27-year-old Vancouver resident admitted in court earlier this week that he killed Richard Jones, 68, and Dianna Mah-Jones, 65, but is maintaining his original plea of not guilty,

His lawyers are arguing that he lives mostly in a fantasy world, treating real life like the video games he spent up to 14 hours a day playing.

"We take the position that while in the house [where the killings occurred], he's in a game," said defence lawyer Glen Orris.

State of mind at issue

According to testimony from the first week of the trial, the Joneses were brutally attacked in their Marpole area home on September 26, 2017, with Mah-Jones suffering more than 100 stab wounds.

Police have not found any connection between Kam and the victims.

On Wednesday, defence lawyer Faisal Alamy played a number of violent video game clips which appeared to closely match the attack on the couple.

Dianna Mah-Jones, 65, and Richard Jones, 68, as they appeared in an image on their Airbnb listing. The listing has since been removed. (Airbnb.ca)

Interrogation video played in court

On Thursday, the court saw a video of Kam's police interrogation.

Orris said the defence isn't contesting Kam's statements, but argue he was in an altered state of mind when he made them. The Crown responded that Kam showed no such signs during police questioning which took place 47 days after the murders.

Justice Laura Gerow asked the defence team to explain how their argument can be applied over a time gap of more than a month. Orris said the altered states that Kam experiences can come and go, much like schizophrenia.

Court was adjourned before the entirety of the video could be shown, but over nearly two hours Kam appeared polite, laughed at times, understood that he was arrested for two counts of murder and acknowledged the seriousness of the crimes.

But for much of it, he repeated the same thing, "I have nothing to say. I won't talk about it."

More of the interrogation video is expected to be shown in court on Friday as the trial resumes.

Kam has neither a criminal record nor a history of mental illness.