The Bloody, Gruesome Result When Two MMA Fighters Took Shrooms

Suppose an MMA fighter were to tell you, “I’m going to rip your heart out.” You would think this is just hyperbole in the spirit of competition. It’s like when Mike Tyson says “I’m going to eat your children”—even if the man has a history with biting, he’s not actually going to eat your children. That’s is just not the sort of thing that people do.

Today, we want to tell you about two amateur MMA fighters, Jarrod Wyatt and Taylor Powell. In March 2010, the two men and two other friends in Klamath, California, decided to do some shrooms. No real danger here. Plenty of people try hallucinogenic mushrooms without suffering any ill effects.

All four friends drank mushroom tea. What happened immediately next, we aren’t sure, because all witnesses were high, and their later recollections contradicted each other. But one of the friends shortly after called the police to report a stabbing. When the police arrived, Wyatt was naked and covered in blood. Powell was dead. Most of his face was ripped off. And there was an 18-inch hole in his chest.

Wyatt immediately confessed to the killing. Maybe Powell had struck first; maybe Wyatt had. But the way Wyatt described it at the time, Powell said the world was ending, and Wyatt believed him. Then Wyatt came to believe Powell was the devil. So he cut open the man’s chest (some sources say with a drill), removed his heart, and tried to cook it to destroy it. These actions were not hallucinations—police discovered the heart charred in the stove.

He also cut out Powell’s tongue and other parts of his face, while the man was still alive according to a later autopsy. When the police detectives arrived, Wyatt asked if they were God, come to save him.

Initially, Wyatt pleaded insanity. We can think of few situations more appropriate than this one for clearing the defendant of intent, but that plea didn’t fly, as a judge ruled him competent to stand trial. Wyatt ended up switching pleas, pleading guilty to first-degree murder. This way, he at least stands a chance of getting paroled in 2062.

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