Teen at murder trial: I was fighting a goblin
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"What do you want to tell the judge?" Williams asked his client in the opening minute of Metzker-Madsen's testimony.
"Well, basically the truth," Metzker-Madsen said. "What happened was that, I was playing with Dominic and I was in my own world when I was doing it … my own world is pretty hard to explain."
When Metzker-Madsen plays fantasy games, he is transported to a world of his own — one that has slightly different colors and smells than the real world, he testified. On the day of Dominic's death, the two boys were left alone playing a game involving Roman mythology in the backyard of their foster parents' home.
During the game, Metzker-Madsen went to his own world and saw an army of goblins, he testified. They were "green, ugly little creatures" that were fighting people he knew, he said. The scene was similar to something from Skylanders, a video game the teen played, he said.
At one point, Metzker-Madsen said he fought the goblins' commander, driving him to a ravine. When the goblin was struck by a root and fell to the bottom, the teen said he slid down the ravine and attacked with a sword and brick.
"I remember attacking him with it and smashing it into his face," Metzker-Madsen said.
"At that very moment did you realize it was Dominic?" Williams asked.
"No, I did not," the teen said. "I started pushing his head into the water as I was hitting him with a brick."
The teen testified he wanted to keep the goblin to make sure it wouldn't come back to life and fight him. Goblins are "kind of tricky little creatures," he said.
After killing the goblin commander, Metzker-Madsen said he was called out of the ravine by a screaming ally who needed his help. The "vision" finished after he helped the other person, he testified. He then went to tell his teenage foster sister that he couldn't find Dominic.
Last week, an associate state medical examiner testified Dominic died from blunt force injuries and drowning.
Metzker-Madsen testified that it wasn't until he was riding in a vehicle later that he realized he was involved in Dominic's death.
Metzker-Madsen got frustrated during cross-examination by assistant attorney general Denise Timmins. In charging documents, prosecutors noted that Metzker-Madsen provided more than one story for why Dominic died and was able to lead his foster family to his body.
On cross-examination, Metzker-Madsen said he told different people varying versions of the stories depending on a symbol that only he could see on top of people's heads. The symbol told him whether or not he could trust the person, he said.
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https://www.desmoinesregister.com/s...iological-mother-testifies-in-trial/18538357/