Here’s something for jurors to sink their teeth into.
Alleged NYPD cannibal wannabe Gilberto Valle is considering a mental-illness defense at his upcoming trial, court papers filed yesterday reveal.
His lawyer, public defender Julia Gatto, said she was still reviewing the “voluminous” amount of information turned over by prosecutors and hadn’t decided whether to offer “expert evidence relating to a mental disease or defect or any other mental condition.”
Manhattan federal Judge Paul Gardephe gave her until Jan. 7 to decide. The trial is to start Jan. 22.
Valle, 28, is charged with scheming online to kidnap, rape, torture, cook and eat women and with using a law-enforcement database to compile information about potential targets.
He has said his Web chats were simply harmless expressions of sexual fantasies.