Jarrod Wyatt, MMA Fighter, Allegedly Ripped out Friend Taylor Powell's Heart

By: Edecio Martinez
Topics: Daily Blotter

Jarrod Wyatt (Del Norte County Sheriff's Dept.)

NEW YORK (CBS) Jarrod Wyatt is charged with murdering his sparring partner, Taylor Powell, after he allegedly removed his friend's heart, tongue and most of his face.

According to reports, police who responded to the March 21 scene in Klamath, Calif. said the 26-year-old mixed martial arts fighter was under the influence of psychedelic drugs when he allegedly drilled an 18-inch hole into the victim's chest.

Wyatt was apparently convinced that the world was about to end and that Powell, 21, was the Devil, according to the Times-Standard.

"Satan was in that dude," Wyatt allegedly told Del Norte County Police Sgt. Elwood Lee, who responded to the scene.

Lee told the northern California paper that Wyatt also cooked Powell's severed body parts in a wood stove because he thought Powell was still alive.

According to his lawyer, Wyatt suffered a psychotic breakdown because of the drugs.

"My client was trying to silence the devil," Wyatt's defense attorney James Fallman told the Times-Standard.

Wyatt was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. He appeared in court Tuesday, according to the paper, but did not enter a plea.

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by p-ran June 4, 2010 2:49 PM EDT: This has nothing to do with mushroom tea or MMA, but his psychological state, period. Others who drank the tea didn't cut the hearts out of their friends. Other MMA fighters don't engage in this behavior. He'll have plenty of time to test out his skills in a new "cage" of his own, this time with Bubba and friends.; Reply to this comment


by texas_liberal June 2, 2010 7:13 PM EDT: the guy looks like he has psychological issues to begin with.
the Psychedellics just augmented the severity.; Reply to this comment

by commemorative June 2, 2010 11:15 AM EDT

California wants to legalize marajuana!! Marajuana is a gateway drug to bigger things. Knowing California legalizing marajuana is one step to legalize, cocaine, herion, meth, all prescription drugs and mushrooms. This is what you get when you use drugs, a nut and of course he will probably get off because the drug altered his mind and that wasn't him committing the murder. Legalize marajuana, you just legalized crime.

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by DongWork4Yuda June 2, 2010 11:30 AM EDT: Wow one incident by a guy who obvioulsy hasd mental issues before this situation and you're ready to say everyone who uses these substances will act this way.

Hate to tell ya something but there are plenty of completely spober people who have acted in a similiar fashion....

I do not beleive psychdelics or mj are problems... I do agree that Heroine Coacaine and Meth along side of prescription drugs are a major problem.

BUT anyone who says Marijuana is a gatewqay drug is being fed a bunch of BS from doctroed numbers.

The 1st drug I ever did was caffeine, the 2nd I tried ciggatrettes and nicotine, the 4th w

and the 5th drug I tried was Pot... So please tell me how pot was a gateway drug to anything.

There is no gateway drug. Some humans are just more suseptible to experimentation and other even more so to addicition. it's a DNA thing not a gateway drug LIE


by bigoldic June 2, 2010 12:15 PM EDT: slow down grandma, this is the first case i've seen in decades where
psychdelics were linked to a death. How many deaths are associated with prescription meds??? 28,000 last year alone, look it up. Alcohol related deaths??? Over 100,000. All other narcotics combined???
about 10,000. Deaths related to psychdelics, including this one, well, 1. Now please unglue your re-tarded a-- from fox, and Hanity and actually do some research you slob. Why are people like you even given the privlage to speak? All your presence accomplishes is confusion and supports the agenda of rich American. STUPID!


by bigoldic June 2, 2010 12:28 PM EDT: Let me take this time to reflect on how dumb, uneducated, and gullible this country really is. To begin with, if you want to analyze a link between drugs and death look no further then PRESCRIPTION DRUG OVERDOSE, which accounts for about 28,000 deaths last year alone. The most popular drug in the US is not meth, crack, mary jane, coke, its HYDROCODONE, you can by it at any pharmacy or drug dispensory with a doctors prescription(Extremely easy to get). If Violence is your fortay, look no further then your neighborhood gas station or liquor store. Alcohol accounts for over half a million violent crimes(whether linked to murder, burglery, assualt, rape, you name it, and alcohol has done it. Interested in dying a slow and painfull death, we have something for you too, its call cigarettes, It kills millions of people every year, and over 50,000 die from second hand smoke yearly. More then illegal drug deaths in the last TWO years. The problem is most people reading this classify as that majority that dont have the mental capacity to read a paragraph without drifting off into retardum.
This country is in trouble.


by skiNH603 June 2, 2010 6:01 PM EDT: you are an idiot


by rrozsa June 3, 2010 10:46 AM EDT: Marijuana is less likely to be a gateway drug if you don't have to buy it from the same drug pedaller who pushes the bigger stuff. If marijuana is legal to grow in your backyard, most marijuana users will never even be exposed to the harder stuff. I know marijuana users who have smoked for many, many years, and never even felt tempted to seek anything harder. So the "gateway drug" argument doesn't hold much water, in my opinion.


by p-ran June 4, 2010 2:55 PM EDT: Drugs are already legal in the U.S., my friend. Alcohol is the leading cause of car deaths and homicides. Marijuana and other "soft" drugs like mushrooms don't result in this kind of death and crime. Alcohol is by far more destructive than either of these. This incident has nothing to do with drugs. The others who drank the tea didn't cut the hearts out of their friends, thinking they were the devil. This has nothing to do with MMA, either. It's solely about this guy's psychological state. He's just using the drug defense to try and get off because he's a coward and won't take responsibility for what he did.


by rockymtnhi August 7, 2010 9:49 AM EDT: First of all, it's spelled marijuana. Second, there was no marijuana involved in this case, so your post is irrelevant. Try to find one case where marijuana caused violence. I dare you. I'll load you a bowl while I wait.


by Concerned2009 June 2, 2010 9:48 AM EDT: Pitbulls that kill are put down .... seems there is a similarity here - both MMA fighters and Pitbulls are trained to fight in a cage .... so goes the logic.; Reply to this comment


by infonomics June 2, 2010 7:35 AM EDT: I echo the comment about Stalin's paranoia. However, the largest number of deaths were those who perished (famine) during Collectivization (25-35 million). Read Harvest of Sorrow. The State needed the wheat for the cities which wreak havoc on the peasants in the rural areas. Many resorted to cannibalism. Stalin was more than just an atheist, too confining a scope; no, he was a misanthrope.; Reply to this comment


by formrusmcsgt June 2, 2010 6:49 AM EDT: by andacar June 1, 2010 11:52 PM EDT
Here we go again with the athiest trolls jumping in at any opportunity. Would you like us to start mentioning the, what was it, 20 million people that Stalin murdered in the name of atheism?
---
Stalin did not execute in the name of atheism your moron. You can't put up a single credible source to the effect.

He slaughtered out of paranoia.; Reply to this comment


by dragon8me June 2, 2010 3:04 AM EDT: psychedelic drugs are not about getting high. They were used by shamen for spiritual enlightenment and can be dangerous in the wrong hand, like someone who is mentally unstable. Yes you can see the devil or even God, I've known people who have told me they have but none freaked out like this dude.They have been used by mental health experts to cure people of their problem as well. There not for the untrained by any means and for those who want to experiment they shouldn't do it without an experienced guide. These sort of drugs are deffinately not for getting high.; Reply to this comment


by zebra8835 June 2, 2010 12:27 AM EDT: How would you like him for your cell mate.... sleep tight!; Reply to this comment

by andacar June 1, 2010 11:51 PM EDT

What an idiot. I doubt those drugs created anything that wasn't already there. When you train people to fight with unrestrained rage, and they clearly aren't too bright to begin with, what do you expect when they take crazy drugs? This guy is an animal and needs to go away.

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by DongWork4Yuda June 2, 2010 11:33 AM EDT: I agree this guy had rage issues that got the best of his fragile mental state under the influence of a substance.


by pak31 June 1, 2010 9:50 PM EDT: Why is it that the mentally ill and drug induced nut jobs always blame Satan or the devil?? Is it coincidence or is there really something going on here? This is so horrifying I don't know what to say.; Reply to this comment