The celebration of the city ended tragically: a man was killed in front of a priest

Trare generations did not lie, convicted of murder

June 30 is exactly the year that in the city of Krakow, near the historic St. The father of two, Nerijus S., 35, was killed in the Church of Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist.

This horrible and useless crime seemed to crown the city’s two-day celebration. During the event, many sports competitions were organized, firefighters demonstrated their skills, craft fairs and St. Peter and Paul Petitions and the First Communion feast were held.

As is often the case, the young people drank during the celebration. In the evening, alcohol was widely consumed in a place popular with local youth, in the square next to the church, where a monument to the first school in Krakow is located.

The young man’s drinking ended when one of his participants fell onto the asphalt after a blow to the head and did not get up again, and the other, Žydrūnas Šereiva, born in 1997, was recently convicted of murder by a court and sentenced to 7 years in prison.

This is the third confrontation between a 23-year-old man and Temide.

For the first time Ž. Šereiva appeared in court in 2013, when she was only 16 years old. The Kėdainiai District Court sentenced him to 8 months in prison for violating public order.

A year later, the young man committed a crime again and was again tried for violating public order, and was sentenced to a final sentence of 1 year and 6 months in prison.

The young people met in the square – there were drinks

Ž. Šereiva, like the murdered father of two young children, Nerijus S., comes from the same city of Krakow. Nerijus S. had moved to Kėdainiai, and his killer lived and worked in Kaunas.

The paths of the young people, who did not know each other, were crossed on June 30, 2019, during the celebration of the city of Krakow. That day, they both returned to their hometown for fun.

For police investigators Ž. Šereiva later said that during the celebration, along with a friend, he bought a 1-liter bottle of vodka from a local store and brought it to the plaza next to the church. This monumental park is a popular venue for local youth gatherings and drinks.

Ž. Šereiva recalled: when he met several of his friends here and 13-year-old Nerijus S., who did not know each other before, he also had a bottle of vodka with him and was very drunk.

At first, the entire company spent some time in silence next to the church drinking alcohol, and when the young people drank, disagreements began.

“It just caught our eye then. They were all local, and the killer was from Kėdainiai. When he arrived with the bottle, he accepted it, and later, apparently, it became obsolete,” Delfi Sigitas Štaraitis, a lawyer who Represents the widow and mother of the deceased in court.

Did you manage to agree on what testimony you will give to the researchers?

Ž. He was convicted of murder. Šereiva said the first conflict occurred around 8 p.m., when the entire company had already drunk from the consumed vodka.

“While serving vodka to a friend, Nerijus S. suddenly tapped his hand on the spilled glass, which fell to the ground and shattered.” Shereva

After such behavior, Nerijus S. tried to calm down with words, one of the drinkers sat on a bicycle, took home and brought a new glass. Drinking in the park near the church continued, and the atmosphere changed more and more.

Ž. Šereiva mentioned that Nerijus S., who was sitting next to him, began to hang out: he heard him, hit him with the hand, but not much. And the maturing conflict culminated when the drunk Nerius started blushing everyone with uncensored words and insult, eventually colliding with one of the drunks, but they were singled out by other drunk boys.

The fact that Nerijus S. started the first battle with previously unknown youths was also witnessed in court by other participants in the drink that ended tragically. However, S. Štaraitis, an attorney representing the victims, the killer’s widow and mother in the case, suggests that these testimonies be critically evaluated. According to the lawyer, the young people had enough time to agree on the testimony they would give to police investigators, so they tried to blame the killer for all the blame for the tragedy.

Ž. Šereiva assured a fatal blow to Nerijus S., 13, when he tried to defend himself. According to the killer, in order for him to sit in front of his future victim, Nerius suddenly hit him on the head with his fist. Another drinker noticed him and told him to calm down, but Nerijus S. hastened to fight with the “sedative” and left it on the floor.

As the conflict culminates, Ž. Shereva said that she had shot down the drowning people, and then Nerijus S. got up and clenched his fist, preparing to attack him.

Ž. Šereiva did not deny Nerijus S. the first blow to the cheek, but justified that the blow was not a strong one. Still, that was enough to keep Nerijus S. off-balance, a high-ranking man to fall onto the asphalt.

After receiving murder charges, Ž. Shereva tried to alleviate her situation by saying that the victim’s drunkenness may have contributed to the collapse, that before she died she swayed and did not cling to her feet. Still, this assumption was refuted by the mother of the deceased. The woman, who lost her only child, said she often did not drink alcohol and was in conflict. Due to their height and strong physique, they were able to “lift” a large amount of toxic substances, and being intoxicated, kept them firmly on their feet and did not collapse.

The execution was seen by the priest: his testimony became especially important

In Skvere, near the church, the tragic drama was accidentally noticed by St. Parish pastor of the Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, priest Emilis Jotkus. His testimony became crucial at trial.

The priest reminded him that he had not attended the city festival, and around 8 p.m. Returning from the store to the rectory, he heard an oath from the plaza next to the church. The converted pastor saw the young people in conflict 200 or 300 meters away.

Importantly, as the only impartial witness, the priest E. Jotkus memorized the details of the conflict that ended in the death of a young man. Although Ž. Shereva made sure to hit only once, the priest saw two hits.

The pastor recalled that the fat young man, Nerijus S., had raised his elbow in defense, and another young man had struck his hand for the first time, and then a second time on his head, after this, the second defensive man fell on the asphalt and did not get up.

Seeing that the young man had fallen and was not moving after being hit in the head, the priest took out the phone and began photographing the participants in the execution. He recalled that everything happened at a distance of about 300 meters, so not much was recorded.

After seeing the pastor photograph and approach them, the participants of the bloody drinkers spilled out, knocking Nerijus S. unconscious on the ground. Priest E. Jotkus recalled calling them to stop and return, but the drunken youth did not want to.

Later, the pastor said that the invited grandparents and subsequent ambulance workers were still trying to resuscitate the young liar, but he was unable to help anyone and died.

“It is a completely useless death for a young person, and it is about alcohol. I remember one of the former was still proud to” give the old man a beard, “recalling the tragic drink, the culmination of which he saw, said the Krakiai pastor E Jotkus to the Delfi portal.

According to the priest, the square next to the church, where the tragedy took place, is a regular place for local youth gatherings and for drinking. According to him, the situation would change only if video surveillance cameras were installed in this place.

The killer was detained by the police when he returned to Kaunas.

During the drink, Ži knocked out Nerijus S., who was unknown before. Šereiva called a friend after the drinkers dispersed and asked to be taken to Kaunas, where she was working and living at the time.

Along the way, the guy received a call from his brother, who said that after a decisive blow, Nerijus S. died. Since it was already close to Kaunas, Ž. The sheriff did not return and told the cops they were calling his address. The police arrived early and arrested him and took him into custody. Depending on the case, the guy had already managed to stay sober. Immediately after the arrest, at 11 p.m. 31 min. it was discovered that he had a drunkenness of 0.57 per thousand.

The concentration of alcohol in the blood of the slain Nerijus S. was much higher: 2.29 per thousand and in the urine: 2.66 per thousand, which would correspond to the average degree of drunkenness in a living person.

The cause of death for Nerijus S. was found by the forensic expert to be a severe traumatic brain injury with diffuse axonal damage, hemorrhage below the web, and bruising of the forehead lobes.

In court, the expert explained that the mechanism of the injury was as follows: a blow was made to the facial area, hanging the area of ​​the lip and the right cheek, after which the man collapsed with a nape on a hard surface. and Rome, a plane that has no corners, which could have been tarmac.

He had to anticipate the consequences before hitting his face.

In court, Ž. Shereva did not deny hitting the drunk in the face, regretting that, but said she did not want to kill the man she had met for the first time in her life at the hometown festival.

‘In light of the evidence in the case, it is common for Mr. Ž. Šereiva deliberately hit the victim Nerijus S. in the face with his fist once, as a result of which he fell, hit the asphalt with his neck and died of the injuries he had fallen, “said the Kaunas regional court, which examined the case, in the sentence.

The evaluation of this behavior of a young drunk was based on jurisprudence, which established the opinion that the head is the most important and most vulnerable part of the human body.

“Therefore, a person of normal mental development cannot help but realize that by hitting another person on the head, he is doing an act that endangers the health and life of another person. Realizing this , the author anticipates that the victim may suffer damage to health as a result of such a blow, including those that can lead to his death, “said the Kaunas Regional Court.

According to the court, Ž. Šereiva’s criminal responsibility for the murder is not denied by the fact that the victim was intoxicated with alcohol, that only a small health disorder was caused by the blow to the face, and that his death was caused by injuries resulting from his drop.

“It is Ž. Šereiva’s blow to the victim’s face, from which he fell and suffered fatal injuries, is the main factor that legally determined the death of the victim,” said the Kaunas Regional Court, which examined the case.

Two children were orphaned and the family lost a survivor.

During the trial, Nerijus S.’s mother, who lost her only child, was estimated at 15,000. 600 euros and the assistance of a 600 euro lawyer, he was asked to order the murderer. He noted that his son’s funeral cost $ 2,000. EUR 218, also requested that this amount be deducted from the subsequent funeral allowance of EUR 948. The court confirmed the claim of the mother of the deceased in its entirety.

For two children who have lost their father, the killer will have to pay 12 thousand. euros Ž. Sheriffs will also have to pay them € 85.56 a month until they reach adulthood. It seems that this will not be a great boost for a widow raising two children, because the income received by the deceased, according to the widow, was quite significant.

According to the case, the deceased married his wife in 2007 and divorced in 2018. But the couple lived alone for only two months, after which they were together again. Although the parents of the two children were formally divorced and married on a joint farm, the husband paid alimony to the wife.

“Nerijus worked for a farmer. In the summer he earned around 1.5 thousand. EUR, and in winter he received around 1 thousand. However, this was not his only source of income, since he himself cultivated and earned income selling grains once a year. He was entitled to a child support payment from Nerijus, which he paid, but we used the other money earned by both together, “said the mother of the two children who had lost their father .

He promises to appeal the verdict.

“Accused Ž. The mitigating circumstance of Šereiva’s responsibility is that he confesses to having committed a criminal act and sincerely regrets it, and the commission of the act was influenced by the provocative behavior of the victim. The aggravating circumstance is that the criminal act committed while intoxicated with alcohol, which influenced his commissioning, “declared the Kaunas Regional Court.

By naming Ž. Šereivai’s sentence of 7 years in prison took into account both his personality, his young age and the danger of the crime itself, as well as the irreversible consequences.

Lawyer Angelė Fominienė, who represented the murderer in court, told Delfi portal that this judgment of the Kaunas Regional Court, announced on June 18, 2020, will be appealed to the Lithuanian Court of Appeal.

According to the lawyer, Ž. The act committed by Shereva should not be treated as murder, but as a careless deprivation of life. For this crime, the Penal Code establishes an incomparably lesser punishment: arrest or imprisonment for up to four years.