Leibel pleaded not guilty to murder, mayhem, aggravated mayhem and torture, according to a press release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. She met Leibel very soon after the move and was apparently captivated with Hollywood, snapping selfies in front of Hollywood’s star-lined sidewalk. His attorney in the divorce proceedings, Ronald Richards, told the Times that he’s known his client for a long time and that he’s never been a violent person.
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Leibel, who is the son of prominent Toronto developer Lorne Leibel, is accused of murdering Kasian, on or between May 23 and May 26.
Blake Leibel’s various industry profiles, including one on the Internet Movie Database, credit him as a world-champion in the video game Half Life, a creative consultant and director on some episodes of Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs: The Animated Series”, and the creator of several graphic novels.
After a distressed call from Iana Kasian’s mother that her daughter had gone missing, police forced their way into her and Leibel’s condominium on Holloway Drive. In his other works, Leibel continued to play with evil and psychopathic themes, including a screenplay about a madman on a killing spree. The Washington Post reported that Kasian had given birth to the couple’s child three weeks ago.
Leibel moved to California in 2004 and received $1.7 million in monthly allowances from his family over eight years, the Times reports.
Representatives from Touchstone Homes and Global Affairs declined to confirm the relationship between the suspect and the elder Leibel. He was booked May 20 and released later in the day on $100,000 bail, according to jail records. His mother reportedly left most of her large estate to him before she died in 2011. He competed on Canada’s sailing team in the 1976 Olympics before making a fortune building suburban homes in the 1980s and 1990s, according to the National Post.
“Blake needed money”, reads a statement from Ontario Superior Court Justice Greer, who oversaw the challenge.
One of the publishers of Leibel’s graphic novels, Archaia Entertainment, distanced itself from the author Saturday.
Prosecutors have not determined whether to seek the death penalty. Inside, they found the 30-year-old Ukrainian woman “unresponsive” with signs of “sustained blunt force trauma”.
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Despite the various lists of Leibel’s accomplishments found in online biographies, court documents related to his mother’s will reveal his life in L.A. was made possible through financial support from his parents. He is due back in court June 14.
