Psychiatrist Thinks Convicted Murderer Believed He Was an Anime Character at Time of Crime

Danica Davidson January 13, 2025

Bleach
A case of murder in New Zealand has taken a new turn involving anime. In 2017, Gabriel Hikari Yad-Elohim — whose birth name appears to be Jung Hoon Song — viciously murdered 69-year-old Michael Mulholland. Yad-Elohim, who is now 36, had recently been discharged from the Auckland District Health Board’s acute mental health unit, and he didn’t know Mulholland. He struck the man nearly 100 times.

Yad-Elohim and his defense team contended that he had schizophrenia and was mentally ill, caught up in a delusion when the crime happened. The jury didn’t buy it, and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Allegedly Yad-Elohim has hallucinations and believes he sees ghosts. He said to people in healthcare that his name was Yuuki Watanabe and he was Japanese, which is not accurate. He gave the police a monologue in Japanese. And he insisted that at the time of the crime, he thought he was an anime character.

James Cavney, a forensic psychiatrist, discovered a scene in Bleach that is similar to the crime. He theorizes that Yad-Elohim was so mentally unstable he believed he was an anime character at the time of the murder. Though Radio New Zealand’s coverage wasn’t clear on details, it said that Yad-Elohim’s Japanese monologue matched up with something from Bleach.

These arguments were taken to the New Zealand Supreme Court. The Supreme Court declared, “We have considered the video and the transcript of Mr Yad-Elohim’s monologue. Dr Cavney identifies several similarities between the video and the attack on Mr Mulholland and there are similarities also with Mr Yad-Elohim’s monologue. . . The evidence is significant and appears credible, but on a leave application it is difficult for us to gauge its impact on the other expert evidence led at trial and on appeal, and on its implications for the verdict.”

The Supreme Court wants this new evidence taken before the Court of Appeal.

“His application for leave to appeal to this court is dismissed, without prejudice to his right to seek leave to appeal [to the Supreme Court] after the Court of Appeal has considered any recall application,” the Supreme Court announced.

Source: RNZ

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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.