Renato Seabra, a 21-year-old Portuguese model, is now standing trial for brutally killing his older lover in 2011, then castrating him with a corkscrew and wearing the dead man’s testicles on his arms.

“He put one on each wrist,” defense lawyer Rubin Sinins explained in Manhattan court this week. “He did this for his protection. [He thought] he could also harness the power. He wandered the streets of Manhattan, touching people, because he had the power to cure people from AIDS.”

Sinins contends his client killed journalist Carlos Castro, 65, during a psychotic episode: “He willingly told police. He wanted to explain why he killed Mr. Castro, because he thought what he had done was right.” When he was first arrested, Seabra told police he killed his lover to exorcise his “homosexual demons.” The defense is asking the jury to find Seabra not guilty by reason of insanity.

Prosecutors aren’t buying it: They claim the handsome Seabra just saw the older writer as a ticket to the good life, and murdered him when it looked like the ride was ending: “He want to be famous and make money. He also wanted nice things—clothes, electronics, gifts for his family. He wanted to eat in nice restaurants,” said Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal. “When Carlos Castro showed up in Renato Seabra’s life, he saw a means to an end and he got on board.”

The men came to New York on vacation in January 2011, but Castro quickly tired of shelling out shekels for Seabrea’s extravagant lifestyle and turning a blind eye to the younger man’s dalliances with women. After a fight, Castro bought Seabrea an early ticket home to Portugal. That’s when the dark-haired model bashed Castro’s head with a computer monitor and stomped him to death.

Even if Seabra winds up in prison, we’re thinking the other inmates will give him a wide berth.