An enduring mystery of this trial is what, exactly, is going on inside the mind of Isaiah Kalebu.

State psychiatrists and Judge Michael Hayden say Kalebu is competent to stand trial. They also say he's mentally ill. (The two things are not necessarily mutually exclusive.) According to Kalebu's mother, he's schizophrenic. According to state psychiatrists who evaluated Kalebu in 2008, he's bipolar. Kalebu's defense attorneys, though they've never wanted to enter an insanity defense until this week, argued yesterday that he's insane based on his testimony about the rapes and murder he's accused of committing. Kalebu himself told the court on Wednesday that he's been "diagnosed several times" as mentally ill.

All of which only leads to more questions: Is Kalebu psychotic? A sociopath? A treatable mentally ill person suffering from a lack of medication and/or therapy? A shrewd, manipulative rapist and murderer? All of the above? Some of the above? One—and only one—of the above?

I don't think anyone knows. But having sat in the same courtroom as Kalebu over the last two days, I will say this:

The only emotions I saw from him were anger (over his confinement, his inability to convince the judge of his world view, and the media glare) and concern about the fate of his dog, a pit bull he calls Endo.

Kalebu was matter-of-fact when he told the courtroom about being told by his God to "attack my enemies" on the night of the South Park rapes and murder. "I did so," he said flatly. "I followed the instructions."

But after his testimony was over, and after the jury was back in its chambers, and as he was being wheeled out of a courtroom in a restraint chair, Kalebu asked a Seattle Police detective: “Do you know if they killed my dog?" He complained that he had no information about Endo's fate. "People blow smoke up my ass all the time in this place," he said.

Amid all the horror and tension of this trial, and with the woman who says he raped her and killed her partner present in the courtroom, Kalebu's most pressing concern was: "Is Endo still alive?"