JESSICA'S DRUGGED-UP KILLER WANTS A BREAK

Rod Patten Admits He Killed 11-Year-Old Jessica States - But Is
Seeking A Lesser Charge Because He Says He Was Stoned All The Time

Killer Wants Lesser Charge

Drug Cocktail Addled Mind Of Sex Attacker, Says His
Lawyer

VICTORIA - The man who killed 11-year-old Jessica States says he
should get a break because he was on drugs when he did it.

Rod Patten, 22, admitted yesterday he killed the child in a Port
Alberni park almost five years ago. Through his lawyer, Patten told a
B.C. Supreme Court jury his defence will be based solely on his mental
state at the time of the killing.

Patten, said lawyer Jim Heller, "was not in a clear state of mind" on
the night of the killing because he had consumed "a toxic cocktail"
including alcohol, marijuana and a large amount of LSD.

Because of that, said Heller, "he had lost the ability to appreciate
the world around him...lost the ability to appreciate the results of
his actions."

That, said Heller, should be enough to reduce the crime to
manslaughter rather than first-degree murder.

The slaying of Jessica, who was spirited away from a ballpark just two
doors away from her home, stunned her close-knit community in
mid-summer 1996.

Jessica's tearful mother, Dianne States, told the jury that on the
evening of July 31, Jessica ate supper, then headed off on her bike
for the nearby ballpark - just as she did almost every night when the
fastball players were taking to the field.

"That park was like Jessica's back yard," said Dianne. "She spent a
lot of time there."

When she could, the sports-mad girl would act as bat-girl for one of
the teams.

Other nights, she'd try to earn money by chasing stray balls that
ended up outside the park fence. Each ball caught was worth a loonie
at the concessions stand.

"She was one of those kids that showed up faithfully every night,"
said Shannon Charlesworth, a regular ball field volunteer.

She saw her there the night she went missing, waiting for balls,
talking to the other kids, and finally talking to a young male sitting
on a picnic table in Dry Creek Park, across the street from the diamond.

Dianne States testified she expected Jessica to come home after the
game - but she didn't.

The mom searched for two hours before calling the RCMP, who quickly
launched a search.

Crown counsel David Kidd told the jury that evidence in the trial will
show that Jessica suffered injuries "consistent with a sexual assault."

Semen was found, he said, and the DNA from that semen will be shown to
match Patten's.

Patten, who was only 17 at the time of the killing, was arrested after
the DNA evidence became available in 1999.

Kidd said the jury will also watch a videotape on which Patten
confesses to the killing in an interview with the RCMP - and provides
details of the crime that had never been made public.

Heller, in turn, promised that Patten will testify because "he wants
to tell...his side of this tragic story."

Heller said there's no question the killing of Jessica was "an ugly,
monstrous nightmare...(but) Patten awoke to this nightmare too, along
with the rest of Port Alberni."

The trial is expected to last about two weeks.