Jurors in double murder trial ask about mental health of accused killer

Despite his rambling outbursts and odd grunting sounds, jurors have been told accused murderer Emanuel Kahsai was found mentally fit to stand trial.

On Friday, the day after jurors sent a letter to the judge asking if Kahsai had been forensically assessed, theywere told Kahsai was admitted to a forensic facility for an assessment and found mentally fit.

"Please do not give anymore consideration to this issue," Justice Glen Poelman told the panel. "Please do not allow it to affect your assessment of the evidence."

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Kahsai is on trial for first-degree murder in the death of his mother, Selma Alem, 54, and second-degree murder in the death of Julie Tran, a young mentally disabled woman who was cared for by Alem.

Alem'sbest friend, Susan Hills, testified Friday that in the year leading up to the killings,Kahsaihad become angry and threateningtowardhis mother.

She told jurors thatKahsaihad threatened to killAlemat least twice and that her friend had become so fearful of her son that she sought an emergency protection orderin the months before the pair were killed.

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The bodies of both woman were discovered in Alem's Coventry Hills home on Oct. 19, 2015. They had died after suffering several knife injuries to their necks, faces and bodies.

Kahsai,whohadrecently threatened to kill his mother, was arrested later that night at an apartment inEdmonton. Alem's missing SUV was found just a few blocks away.

Blood from both women were found on Kahsai's sneakers, according to prosecutorsTodd Buziak and Matt Dalidowicz.

Alemlivedas a "supportive roommate"with two disabled adults Tran, who died alongside Alem, and Darrel Beaumont, a man in his 50s who hassignificant mental disabilities after suffering brain injury as a child.

Kahsaihas been removed from the courtroom and is watching and listening from another room. The 32-year-old is representing himself, but each time he is given the chance to cross-examine a witness, he shouts requests for the U.S. Army and FBI to be contacted.

On Friday afternoon,Poelmantold jurors that defence lawyer MarkTakadahad beenappointed as a "friend of the court" and would sometimes be asking cross-examination questions of some of the witnesses.

Poelmanhas orderedKahsaimuted and taken off closed-circuit TV screens in the courtroom so that he is not a distraction for jurors.

Hills told jurors that in 2005,Kahsai'sbest friend killed his brother Mikewith a cleaver and receiveda five-year sentence.