Munich: Starnberg triple murder – court imposes long youth sentences

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Accused in court in Munich

Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa

In the trial of the triple murder in Starnberg, the Munich II Regional Court found both defendants guilty.

The main defendant, Maximilian B., was sentenced to 13 years of youth imprisonment.

Eight and a half years were imposed on his co-defendant friend Samuel V.

After around one and a half years of proceedings, the court considered it proven that the now 22-year-old main defendant B. shot his friend and his parents in January 2020.

According to the verdict, V. was an accomplice as a helper.

B. made a full confession a year ago.

He also admitted that he wanted to get through the murders to get the guns his pal illegally owned to sell.

According to the public prosecutor's office, his 21-year-old roommate had planned the murder and driven the main perpetrator to the crime scene.

With the sentence, the court remained within the demands of the public prosecutor's office, which had demanded 13 years and six months of youth imprisonment and the reservation of preventive detention for both accused.

The request was unusual.

Because the public prosecutor's office had demanded the same punishment for the 22-year-old who had admitted the crime as for the 21-year-old who was not present at the crime scene.

The co-defendant is said to have merely driven the perpetrator to the crime scene and picked him up from there.

In addition, in juvenile criminal law there is a maximum sentence of ten years for murder.

If adolescents between the ages of 18 and 21 are convicted under juvenile criminal law, up to 15 years is only possible in rare cases in the case of murder with a particularly serious degree of guilt.

The defense of the main perpetrator had demanded twelve years of juvenile detention.

B. himself was repentant: "I'm going along with my lawyers, I wanted to apologize to all my relatives, even though I know that my actions cannot be excused," he said in his last word in the morning.

The co-defendant's defense had asked for acquittal of the murder charge and admitted only involvement in the planning of an armed robbery.

The fact also made headlines because the investigators initially assumed that the son had shot his parents and then himself.

bbr/AFP/dpa