Jonathon Stenberg decapitates man then auditioned for movie role as a police officer and got it.

Defense attorney for an Australian man who beheaded a neighbor days before he audition for the role of a police officer in a movie, is asking a Darwin court to have his client treated for mental illness.

Attorney Shane McMaster said his client, Jonathon Andrew Stenberg, was struggling with mental problems when he decapitated fifty-four year old Edward Kelly on June 21.

Last Sunday, Stenberg was arrested in the Outback north of Darwin after his abandoned car was found near the Northern Territory capital.

He appeared in court on Monday, where McMaster told the court that he was “struggling with some serious mental health issues” when he committed the crime.  McMaster asked that his client be placed in a “cell on his own” because he was “anxious and agitated”.

Magistrate Michael Carey agreed that Stenberg was an at risk prisoner but said he could not promise the prisoner his own cell.

Two days after killing Edward Kelly, Stenberg walked into a casting call in rural Queensland and auditioned for the role of a police officer in an upcoming murder movie “Mystery Road”, and got it.

The assistant director of the movie said Stenberg, who used the phony name John Sergeant, arrived at the casting call with coffee and muffins and war stories of his military life in Afghanistan.

Two days after he nailed the role, Stenberg sent an email to the director turning it down.

The movie stars Hugo Weaving from “The Matrix” and Ryan Kwanten from “True Blood.”