The defendant has thrown a burgundy hooded jacket that hides his face. The young man does not turn towards the audience, even when the cameras have left the hall. The rush in front of the Great Youth Chamber of the district court of Stuttgart is as great as the lack of understanding among the audience for the act.
The 20-year-old Mert T., a car mechatronics by profession, according to prosecutors on March 6, drove two people dead, although he knew the accident risk; with a rented sports car, a Jaguar F-Type Coupe, 550 hp strong, to shortly before midnight after an hour-long reckless jaunt through the capital of Baden-Württemberg.
Mert T. rammed the car of a young couple, as this wanted to turn with a Citroen small car from a parking lot in the Rosensteinstraße near the Stuttgart Central Station. Allowed are at the place 50 kilometers per hour. The defendant probably drove three times as fast. He and his passenger remained unharmed.
"Changed case law"
The prosecution evaluates the crash as a murder. She had initially assumed a negligent homicide. But the reproach changed after evaluation of the on-board computer. It is also about a "new, possibly changed case law," said the Chair judge.
If the chamber follows the prosecution's view, the Stuttgart Raser trial would be in line with a case in Hamburg: in 2017, a man with a stolen taxi had killed a man and injured two. The Federal Court confirmed the murder judgment in the spring. In Stuttgart, 16 dates are scheduled for the time being.
Prosecutor Christine Bez recorded in their charges an insane Raser ride through Stuttgart for half a day: At 15 clock T. took over the white Jaguar by the representative of a Nürtinger car rental. With changing co-drivers, he then drove through the city to impress mates and girls.
Kohls / SDMG / dpa
Accident site in Stuttgart (in March 2019): accident after 50 seconds drive
At the traffic lights T. is said to have held with a roaring engine, several times he broke the rear. On the highway near the airport should have been reached 274 km / h. Then it went back to the city, so the prosecutor, "in complete disregard of local speed rules". About T. she says: "The legitimate interests of other road users were completely indifferent to him."
Pictures of the ride were delivered to buddies and acquaintances via Instagram stories or WhatsApp messages. An acquaintance, K., asked for a ride, Mert T. picked him up at his apartment. After about 50 seconds, the accident happened. The couple in the completely destroyed small car died on the spot, debris damaged a nearby billiard cafe. Conclusion of the prosecutor: "Murder in two identical cases" with a "gemeingelfährlichen tool".
A milieu in which big cars count a lot
In Stuttgart, for example, there is a small amount of politics and the auto industry in the dock, especially in the city, which lives from the production of high-horsepower cars. Like other major cities, the region has long been a problem with car oposers who make their rounds in over-powered vehicles, there have already been several serious accidents.
Even T. was in an environment in which thick cars count a lot: in the shisha bar in the North Station district showed each other videos of rapid rides, defendant and passenger were already together with a borrowed car on the road, on one Car parade in the city center after a wedding.
Thus, the defense counsel of T., lawyer Markus Bessler, because even in his opening statement, a "single decision that is not due to the zeitgeist". It was not a race, the defendant led a normal life, the youthful age should be observed.
Bessler rejects the murder charge. And: "For general preventive thoughts, such as the deterrent effect, there is no room here."
The statement of the passenger
However, also the subsequent statement of the accident driver K. reveals lack of insight. As T. drove roaring through the neighborhood, he thought: "Jaguar, in our North Station, wow." He had texted the crash driver: "Do you feel like making another round?" T. replied: "Yes, let's go fast."
He does not have a driver's license, so K., before the start of the journey he said T.: "Do not exaggerate". One drove down the street, driver T. "pushed on the gas", "then one came to the other".
All the while, as a passenger, he had his cell phone in his hand, according to K., but whether he had filmed he no longer knew, probably "55 percent". There are indications that the buddies deleted annoying videos hours after the crash. On the other hand, they did not provide first aid at the scene of the accident. The crash driver was "such an internet poser," the witness says. During the statement his feet are teetering in white sneakers.
The parents of those killed follow the process, for the co-patient desks they have brought photos of the dead, a father wears a T-shirt with an image of his son. It is very difficult for his clients, explains the representative of the co-claim, Christoph Arnold, in front of the courtroom. "The withdrawal of the defendant to a supposed youthfulness is not convincing" - after all, one should indeed drive from the age of 18 years with a driver's license car.
