Idar-Oberstein: Psychologist on suspected gas station killer Mario N.

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Accused Mario N.: "pulled the ground out from under his feet"

Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / picture alliance/dpa/dpa Pool

Since mid-March, the jury chamber in the district court of Bad Kreuznach has been trying to work through the murder in the gas station in Idar-Oberstein.

Dozens of witnesses were heard and thousands of chat messages evaluated.

The defendant Mario N. tried to explain the inexplicable;

Finding words for why he drove to the gas station again on the evening of September 18 last year, where the man at the cash register hadn’t sold him a beer – because he wasn’t wearing a mask as required.

He's been trying to find words for why he shot this 20-year-old student in the face without warning.

On the advice of his lawyer, N. did not speak to the expert commissioned by the court.

But there is one expert to whom he has opened up: the prison psychologist at the Rohrbach correctional facility (JVA), where N. has been incarcerated for ten months.

His defense attorney, Alexander Klein, has requested that he be called as a witness.

»state of shock«

A friendly man appears, 50 years old, with glasses and in a turquoise short-sleeved shirt.

He had more than 60 conversations with Mario N., says the psychologist.

Mario N. released him from his duty of confidentiality.

The witness recalled that Mario N. was in a "state of shock" for the first three weeks after his arrest.

The defendant "pulled the rug out from under his feet" when he slowly realized what he had done and what consequences he had triggered - for himself, but also for the relatives of the killed Alexander W. His mother was in court that day , she looks at the dock with a steady gaze.

The weight and severity of guilt seem to dominate Mario N.'s conversations with the prison psychologist.

Having done something that he "can no longer make up for" burdens and depresses Mario N. "very much".

So much so that he wanted to take his own life in January after fellow prisoners confronted him about the crime.

The scent of freedom

In general, Mario N. struggles with another meaning of life in detention, says the JVA employee.

He speaks openly about not being able to imagine continuing to live "so monotonously and restricted" after a judgment.

He rejects the yard walk in principle.

Just the feeling of running in circles, surrounded by walls, is "an additional stress factor" for Mario N., says the psychologist.

“It would worsen his emotional state.

Smelling grass reminds him of the freedom he no longer has.« The mood in the conversations was »always depressed and depressed«.

Mario N.'s partner does not seem to contribute to a positive perspective.

The witness reports a letter that she sent to Mario N. in prison at the beginning of May and which could be interpreted as meaning that there is no future together.

Mario N. and the native Indonesian have been a couple for eleven years.

Mario N. still doesn't know why he acted that way on September 18, says the psychologist.

Defender Klein asks about the corona measures that could have triggered the crime that evening in the gas station.

Mario N. found them "completely pointless and unnecessary," says the psychologist.

"He saw no sense in the measures."

more on the subject

• How employees enforce the corona rules: "Since the murder of the gas station employee I've had a bad feeling" Logged by Maren Hoffmann, Matthias Kaufmann and Franca Quecke

• Gas station murder trial: "I can't forgive you"

• Process for deadly gas station attack in Idar-Oberstein: "He regrets the act" Julia Jüttner reports from Bad Kreuznach

In addition, Mario N. generally deals intensively with topics that interest him.

However, it is difficult for him to accept other opinions - this also applies to infection protection and dealing with the pandemic.

The JVA employee speaks of a "certain hubris and arrogance" that Mario N. can show when he thinks he is particularly well versed in a topic.

The assessment of the JVA psychologist plays an important role in the assessment of the accused.

Unlike the psychiatric expert commissioned by the court, he knows Mario N. from personal conversations, was able to ask him questions and confront him with statements.

Ralf Werner couldn't do any of that.

In the afternoon, the specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy reports on the investigation files that were made available to him and his observations during the main hearing.

He excludes both a significant reduction in the ability to control and a serious personality disorder, from his point of view Mario N. is fully culpable.

"Conflicted Person"

If Mario N. got on a "path of wrong information" during the Corona period, which guided and thus influenced him, he could have distanced himself from it at any time, says expert Werner.

The self-employed software developer could have “easily controlled” this based on his intelligence.

Basically, Mario N. is a "conflicted person" who acts encroachingly.

For example, he had no understanding when one was vaccinated against Covid.

At the end, the assessor in the chamber asks again whether Mario N. could have acted in the gas station in an emotional state.

However, Werner excludes that.

The mere waiting time that N. spent in the queue in front of the cash register when he returned armed speaks against "an abrupt course of affect."

The morning after the crime, Mario N. also sent his brother-in-law in the USA a selfie video with the message: "I shot this asshole."