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The accused Mario N. in court in Bad Kreuznach (photo from March 21)
Photo: Boris Roessler / dpa
The act itself is undisputed, but the murder charge is disputed: in the trial surrounding the fatal shot at a gas station employee in Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, the defense denied that the accused acted out of treachery and base motives.
Before the district court in Bad Kreuznach, lawyer Alexander Klein initially pleaded for manslaughter with significantly reduced criminal responsibility of the accused, who had been under the influence of alcohol.
Klein did not name a penalty for his client Mario N.
“The question of the characteristics of the murder is the one that bothered us in the process.
The culprit was clear from the start,” said Klein.
From his point of view, the fact that the victim was “not chosen arbitrarily” speaks against the allegation of base motives, the defender said, referring to a dispute about wearing a corona mask that preceded the shooting.
Defenders see no insidiousness
Klein argued that there is arbitrariness, for example, when someone loses their driver's license and then indiscriminately runs over a victim on the street.
In the present case, however, there was an "interaction between the victim and the perpetrator."
There was also no "insidious behavior" on the part of the accused.
N. shot the 20-year-old gas station employee Alexander W. on September 18, 2021 after he had pointed out the mask requirement in the shop and the two had discussed it.
Attorney alleges defendant's "tunnel vision."
The second defender, Axel Küster, gave a similar assessment of the act.
The accused, who up to the point of the crime had led an impeccable life with no previous convictions, was no longer in control of his senses because of the two parts per thousand alcohol in his blood.
In Küster's view, the aim of the targeted shot at the cashier's head was not that the accused wanted to catch his victim "unsuspicious and defenseless".
"He had tunnel vision," said Küster.
Like Klein, he denied that the guilt was particularly serious.
This assessment by the public prosecutor's office cannot be justified from a technical point of view and is a sign of helplessness.
With this application, which she made in her plea last Monday, chief public prosecutor Nicole Frohn gave in to public pressure and drew the "sharpest sword of justice" against the accused, who had already been convicted in many media.
Finally, the court gave the 50-year-old the opportunity to speak again before the verdict.
He joins his defense attorneys but cannot say much about the trial because he has never seen a court hearing, the defendant said.
He found the procedure to be "cold" in part, something went down in the process and how sorry he was for the act.
“I can't turn back time.
I'm terribly sorry,' he said, his voice cracking.
Right at the beginning of the process, the 50-year-old admitted the fatal shot at the 20-year-old cashier and said he could not explain the crime to this day.
N. faces life imprisonment
If the court follows the request of the prosecutor and imposes a life sentence for murder and determines that the guilt is particularly serious, a release from prison for N. after 15 years would be legally possible, but in practice almost impossible.
The verdict is to be announced next Tuesday.
fek/dpa
