Grant Rodgers

grodgers@dmreg.com

LOGAN, Ia -- Cody Metzker-Madsen on Wednesday testified that he believed he was using a sword and brick to defeat a goblin army leader when instead he was actually beating and drowning his 5-year-old foster brother.

Metzker-Madsen, 18, was on the witness stand Wednesday testifying in his first-degree murder trial. Michael Williams, the teen's attorney, is using an insanity defense, which requires proving that Metzker-Madsen could not tell the difference between right and wrong at the time of the crime and could not appreciate the consequences of his actions.

Metzker-Madsen and Dominic Elkins, the boy who died, were in foster care together with a Logan-area family. Metzker-Madsen testified that he enjoyed playing games with the younger boy.

"I loved the little guy, I would never hurt him," he said. "Not even a hair on his fricken' little head."

Metzker-Madsen spent more than 40 minutes testifying about the events on Aug. 31, 2013. Authorities claimed Metzker-Madsen attacked Dominic with a brick and left him in a pool of water at the bottom of a ravine.

The biological mothers of Metzker-Madsen and Dominic sat in the courtroom and cried as the teen testified. Barbara Kunch, Dominic's mother, left the courtroom as Metzker-Madsen described the attack on her son.

"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.

"You don't really believe me, do you?" the teen asked Timmins at one point.

"I feel like a regretful little punk," Metzker-Madsen said near the end of his testimony. "(Dominic) was like a brother I hadn't had in a long time."

Metzker-Madsen faces a new charge of assault after he bit a Harrison County jailer at 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

The criminal complaint said the teen bit a female jailer on the hand and left marks. In court, Metzker-Madsen testified that he only remembers "bits and pieces" of the incident. The teen's attorney said he could not discuss the new charge.

Metzker-Madsen's mother testifies

Metzker-Madsen's biological mother, Peggy Madsen, also testified, telling District Court Judge Kathleen Kilnoski that she used $20 worth of meth daily while she was in the first three months of her pregnancy with Metzker-Madsen. Madsen quit the addictive drug "cold turkey" after finding out she was pregnant, she said.

Madsen had full custody of her son until he was 7-years-old and continued having some visitation days after, she said. She knew her son had imaginary friends and liked to pretend he was a Power Ranger, she said.

But Madsen believed her son continued playing such games beyond an age where it was normal, she said. Metzker-Madsen would also get angry if things didn't go his way, she said.

"What made me nervous was when he was 10 years old and he still had imaginary friends," she said.

Kilnoski barred reporters from taking photos of Madsen giving her testimony. The defense is expected to call a New York-based forensic psychologist to testify this week. Kilnoski is hearing the testimony and will decide the case in lieu of a jury.