Katie 
Perth, Australia: On Tuesday, June 14, following five days of deliberation, a Newcastle Supreme Court jury found 21-year-old Jordan Brodie Miller guilty of murdering his girlfriend 18-year-old Emerald Wardle in 2020.
He has been remanded to custody and sentencing will begin on August 18.
In returning the guilty verdict the jury rejected the option of a "special verdict" where they had the ability to rule him guilty but not criminally responsible due to a mental health impairment. As a part of that potential ruling, the jury could have agreed that he had not intended to kill Emerald but rather, "another being."
During the three week trial, it was argued by the defense that Miller had undiagnosed schizophrenia which had been compounded by his "chronic" use of marijuana and his use of LSD on June 8, 2020, just 11 days before Emerald was murdered.
The jury saw video of a police interview where Miller told them, "I took half a tab of acid and had a spiritual enlightenment. I became very smart."
According to the U.S. Sun, a witness testified to noticing changes in Miller following his use of LSD saying that he had become more argumentative and had claimed to have become more intelligent and to have lost his "ego" following the trip.
He goes on to say, "I felt I had a curse on me and the only way I could fix it was to kill myself or kill her."
Emerald's mother, Tania Simshauser, took the stand during the trial and told how her daughter had referred to Miller as a "big, shy genius." Other friends testified to him previously being a "gentle giant."
Before being arrested for murdering Emerald, Miller had no criminal history of mental health diagnosis.
During the trial, Professor David Greenburg said that Miller's condition seemed to meet the criteria of a drug-induced psychosis but did not meet all of the criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Psychiatrist Professor Olav Nielssen however, stated that he would "put money on" Miller having schizophrenia and that it had been intensified by his drug use.
In speaking to an emergency operator Miller explained, "This is an emergency. I feel like my health is at risk." He told the operator, "They're going white. They're starting to bleed from their mouth."
When the operator asked who he was talking about Miller responded, "The person that I killed. I believe it's a demon. I killed a demon, yes."
Additionally presented during the trial was information that Miller had approached responding officers at 1:30 am on June 20, 2020 saying, "If you walk inside and go into the bathroom, it's in there, the demon. Help me, help me, the demon's got me. Help me."
Later, as police placed him into the back of a squad car, Miller was seen on a body-worn camera saying, "She sucked the life out of me. I killed a demon."
It was revealed at the trial that Miller has not taken any psychotropic medication since January 2021 and has additionally, not suffered any further psychotic episodes since Emerald's death. According to Perth Now, he had been described as paranoid and delusional and had been seeing "glitches" in reality following his arrest.
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