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The 43-year-old man is being tried for attempted murder, but he denies it and sees himself as a victim. A verdict is planned for the night.
Around 9:00 a.m. On October 2, the then-42-year-old was said to have met his divorced wife in the urban Gmunden area and attacked her with a wallpaper knife. He suffered serious stab wounds to the neck, torso, and upper arm. After the attack, the man turned himself in to the police, but denied the fact at his hearing. In court, the last unemployed carpenter, who came to Upper Austria from Bosnia in 1992, pleaded not guilty and sees himself as a victim.
Custody dispute as motive
The 35-year-old woman testified that the ex had matched her that day. He put on gloves, pulled out a green knife, grabbed her hair and said, “I’m going to kill you now.” Then they fell on a slope. When she was lying on the ground, he sat on her, fixed her hands and stabbed him until a witness yelled at him. This is the only reason the woman survived, the prosecutor said. A little later, the suspect was arrested. The motive was likely a latent custody argument over the daughter and son, she said.
For the prosecutor, there was no dispute as to whether the defendant intended to kill his ex. Why else did he call the police inspection after the crime and literally say “I was shit, I killed my wife,” he asked the jury.
Defense attorney pleads for acquittal
The defense attorney interpreted this statement in such a way that his client did not want to commit murder. Rather, he called the police, totally distressed, and reported that something had happened that was not what he wanted. Both would have sat on a bench to talk about their children again, then the situation would escalate. But he had not put on gloves or taken a knife from his pocket, the defense attorney said. As evidence, he cited that the defendant had friction on his hands. The incident was not resolved that day, so he requested an acquittal.
The defendant, who is now an Austrian citizen, reported that the marriage problems began when his Bosnian wife’s sister arrived in Gmunden in 2018. Alcohol and drugs also became a problem. The divorce continued in February 2019 after 15 years of marriage, the daughter remained with the father, the son with the mother. But both parents wanted sole custody. The park bench meeting on October 2 was one of many on the subject.
Suddenly, the defendant claims to have seen how the woman had a knife back then and was holding her wrist. “I thought she wanted to open it,” he said in the courtroom on Wednesday. Then she approached him, so he wanted to take the knife from her. He slipped and they both fell down the shore. When he got to the bottom, he saw blood, wanted to call the rescue, and accidentally dialed the police number. That version was the third to go to crime, the judge noted. The defendant had put something else in the police file and in front of Judge U.
“Artery lost only by accident”
Before lunch, experts were on the floor. The medical expert discussed four cuts, one of which opened 20 centimeters along the neck to the woman’s hole. A neck muscle was cut, “by chance” the artery behind was not struck.
In principle, the injuries were serious and had to be treated immediately. The image of the injury also fits the description of the victim’s crime. From a “medical point of view”, these cuts cannot be contracted if you go down a bench with a knife in your hand. The defendant had affirmed this.
What revealed the analysis of the DNA traces, the expert in charge of the court said that the glove found near the crime scene should not have been used by the suspect. As documented in a photo, the 43-year-old man suffered bloody abrasions on the back of his left hand as he fell down the embankment. However, the left glove was more or less clean.
High security precautions.
“It is very likely that a trace of DNA will be detected,” if the defendant had worn the glove over his injured hand, the expert concluded. The victim had stated that the suspect had dressed a couple before stabbing with the knife.
In order to comply with safety regulations regarding Covid-19, spectator chairs were stacked on top of each other in the courtroom and pushed against the back wall. This allowed the jury to sit at the tables around the room and remove the nose and mouth protection. The defendant, who was removed from custody, had a plexiglass visor.
