Vincent Li, seen in a courtroom sketch, listens to proceedings during his second-degree murder trial in Winnipeg. (Tom Andrich/Canadian Press)

A Manitoba judge will deliver his verdict Thursday morning in the trial of a man accused of stabbing and beheading a fellow passenger on a Greyhound bus.

The two-day Winnipeg trial for Vince Weiguang Li ended on Wednesday with the Crown and defence seeking a verdict of not criminally responsibly by reason of mental disorder.

The judge is expected to render his verdict at 10 a.m. CT on Thursday.

Psychiatrists for the Crown and the defence agreed during the short trial that Li, 40, was suffering from schizophrenia and did not know what he was doing when he killed 22-year-old Timothy McLean of Winnipeg on a bus in Manitoba in July.

The psychiatrists testified that Li believed he was acting on orders from God when he attacked McLean, mutilating the young man before decapitating him and eating part of the body.

Li had pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder, but Crown and defence lawyers asked that he be found not criminally responsible.

That verdict would mean he could be sent to a provincial psychiatric facility rather than to prison.

He would be placed under the authority of a provincial review board with power to keep him in custody or, if he is no longer considered a risk, discharge him.

McLean's family has been lobbying for changes to the Criminal Code that would prevent a person found not criminally responsible for a crime from ever being released into the community.

The victim's uncle, Alex McLean, said Li should remain behind bars for 25 years instead of staying in a hospital with the opportunity of being released.

Major psychotic episode

Psychiatrists testified that Li was suffering a major psychotic episode at the time of the killing and that he met the criteria for an accused person who would be not criminally responsible.

"He has a major mental illness that …rendered him unable to know what he was doing was wrong," said Toronto psychiatrist Jonathan Rootenberg.

In the agreed statement of facts read in court, the Crown and defence said that Li apologized to police when he was finally arrested on the bus, from which other passengers had fled.

Li attacked McLean "for no apparent reason," the statement said, and he ignored other horrified passengers as he stabbed the young man.

Li got on the bus in Edmonton and disembarked at a rural stop in Manitoba. He stayed there overnight, selling and burning most of his possessions. He was there 24 hours before getting on the bus again.

Around 8:30 p.m. on July 30, near Portage la Prairie, Li started stabbing McLean. The man's body was damaged in more than 100 places, the Crown said, noting the attack was so unrelentingly violent that some of the victim's body parts could not be found.

The court heard that Li was prone to unexplained absences from work and sometimes took long road trips on the bus. Despite the urging of those close to him, he refused to seek medical treatment.

RCMP officers said Li's responses were appropriate and polite when he was finally arrested.

He declined a lawyer at one point, telling police: "I'm guilty. Please kill me."

Attack changed lives, says passenger

The brutality of the event resulted in other victims on the bus, as well, and they, too, want to see justice, said Stephen Allison. He and his wife were sitting across the aisle from Li when the attack happened.

"Most people don't see something like that and it changes you so much," said the 19-year-old student.

Allison said he ran to the front to get the driver to stop but that his wife became paralyzed with fear watching the attack and he had to go back and carry her off the bus.

Witnessing the event has changed their daily lives, Allison said, and his wife is now on anti-depressants.

"It's turned me into something I'm not," he said. "It's made me into a shell of my former self. I've been trying to get back to normal, but it's really hard."

Allison said he and other passengers would like counseling and support from victims' services. "Something to say, 'We're sorry for your loss.'"

Allison said he and his wife have not been going to the courtroom, but they have been following the trial closely.

"The best closure would be to see him either behind bars or in a mental institution, locked away for many years," Allison said.

With files from the Canadian Press