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As he is said to have killed a 52-year-old man in May 2019 in the Amstetten district of Greinsfurth, a 40-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison at the St. Pölten regional court on Tuesday. The two main issues of murder and aggravated robbery were unanimously affirmed by all eight members of the jury. The guilty verdict against the German citizen is not final.
The body of the 52-year-old man was discovered late at night on May 28 last year in a bush next to the parking lot of the West Side City Mall. The defendant was arrested about two months later. The victim’s cell phone was found on him, and the man was also contaminated with DNA traces on the victim’s clothing and body.
The trial had been postponed twice at the request of defense attorney Michael Dohr. The most recent request for evidence, which was granted on July 16, concerned an analysis of mobile phone data. Specifically, data from a lost cell phone of the accused was reconstructed until the fourth day of the hearing on Tuesday. The results were eagerly awaited, but ultimately did not provide any new information on the whereabouts of the 40-year-old man at the time of the crime.
The dead woman lay in a green area next to a parking lot.
Image: FOTOKERSCHI.AT / KERSCHBAUMMAYR
“Was not me”
Dohr denied to the last that his client was in Greinsfurth on May 28, around 8:30 p.m., when the 52-year-old man was killed according to investigators. By contrast, the German was going from Scheibbs to the Amstetten district by car at that time. “It wasn’t me,” said the defendant himself. “I have never been violent in my entire life, my greatest weapon is my voice,” said the defendant after the closing lectures.
The question of the possible motive for the bloody act remained open throughout the process. Several times it was said that the most recent unemployed defendant should have been short of money and could have been financially afloat with minor fraud. But the German always denied that he had needed money.
“A multitude of clear indications”
In any case, prosecutor Leopold Bien saw strong evidence: “This is not weak evidence, but a large number of clear evidence.” He demanded life in prison for the 40-year-old man. The jury accepted this opinion after more than two hours of deliberation.
As for the evaluation of penalties, for special and general preventive reasons, there is no way to avoid life imprisonment, explained the presiding judge. The fact that the defendant acted “particularly insidiously” and “brutally murdered the victim” made things more difficult.
“That is a lie”
The normal way of life up to the date of the crime was qualified as mitigating. The defendant commented on the verdict before and while they were taking it to the jury with the words: “That’s a lie.” While prosecutor Bien waived an appeal, defense attorney Dohr requested annulment and criminal appeal.
