A man who stabbed his friend to death, wrapped his body in a doona, and stuffed it into a car boot has been found guilty of murder.
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Zhen Fang, 38, had admitted to killing Ting Huang in 2014, but the jury had to determine whether he was suffering from a substantial impairment of mind at the time to reduce his culpability from murder to manslaughter.
Fang kept his head down and did not appear to react when the jury delivered their unanimous verdict in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday afternoon.
As the jury left the court, he bowed towards them.
The trial heard that, after killing Mr Huang, Fang told his pastor he had "done something to another person" and made a throat-slitting gesture.
The next day, Fang went to police and told them, "I have killed someone" but said he had no memory of where or when, only that the person had given him a "a lot of ice" and threatened his family.
Ten days later, Mr Huang's decomposing body was found in the boot of a car parked near Rookwood cemetery in Lidcombe.
While on a visit China to help his ailing mother, Fang was told police wanted to speak to him and he returned to Australia and was arrested at the airport.
He later told a forensic psychiatrist that he remembered smoking a lot of ice and having a serious argument with Mr Huang before he killed him. A few days later he woke and "thought he had done something wrong".
Fang said he had been avoiding Mr Huang, who had told Fang he had thought about killing Fang's parents-in-law and wife.
Fang told the psychiatrist he was scared after Mr Huang said he must keep his desires a secret or he would be at risk.
Doctor Yvonne Skinner told the trial it was her opinion that Fang was delusional at the time of the killing and believed that Mr Huang was threatening to hurt him or kill his family members.
Dr Skinner said Fang's actions after the killing - including wrapping the body up in a sheet and doona and placing in a car boot - appeared to be purposeful actions and could have occurred while he was in "a drug induced blackout".
"The motor actions can be carried out and they can be purposeful and yet the person has no memory for that period," Dr Skinner said.
The trial also heard that Fang, who worked as a gyprocker, had tested negative to drugs when he reported his crime to police.
However, the court heard, ice leaves the body quickly so it could not be determined with any certainty whether he was or was not on drugs at the time of the killing.
There were no tests that could be performed to determine whether Fang was a long-term ice user.
Dr Skinner said that, when she met Fang earlier this year, he showed no signs of mental illness or disorder and that she believed any delusions would have been the result of ice use.
Fang will be sentenced next year.
