As of: March 13, 2024, 5:29 p.m
By: Isabel Winklbauer
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Kerim P. apologized to the survivors on the first day of the trial.
© Sigi Jantz
He sometimes hears voices, said Kerim P. at the opening of the trial.
Now he was still sentenced to a long prison sentence.
Stjepan J. died in October 2022 on the basketball court at Karl-Marx-Ring in Neuperlach, killed by eight stab wounds in the neck, chest, stomach and head.
He was only 25 years old.
The perpetrator: Kerim P. (24), his drinking buddy that day.
P. was sentenced yesterday at the Munich I Regional Court to eleven years and three months in prison - for manslaughter and grievous bodily harm, not for murder.
P. and his defense attorney Joachim Schwarzenau received the verdict with some dismay.
Stjepan's attacker actually suffers from an "emotionally unstable personality disorder of the impulsive type" - which means he has difficulty controlling his aggression under certain circumstances.
He also suffered from paranoia in the past.
But, as judge Elisabeth Ehrl explained, these disorders were “not so pronounced that he can no longer control himself.”
In addition, he was not significantly impaired by alcohol or marijuana - he drank about five pints of beer and smoked a joint but did not inhale it, which was confirmed by blood tests after his arrest the next day.
She judged Kerim P. to be fully culpable, confirmed his “absolute desire to destroy” and a clear intention to kill.
The victim, Stjepan J., reprimanded P. on the evening of the crime because he had intentionally broken a beer bottle at a gas station.
The gas station will not tolerate riots on its property, he warned.
This caused disproportionate “anger and annoyance” in P., which he had to vent.
Quick death from two of the stab wounds
At the end of the verdict, the judge recommended that P., instead of appealing, look to the future and work on bringing his disorders under control - for example in a social-educational prison for violent offenders.
However, the trial brought relief for the three friends who had witnessed the crime but then fled.
One of them, Mario M., was seriously injured in his hand by P. himself and, like the others, has been suffering from concentration and sleep disorders as well as nagging self-blame since the day his friend died.
Could someone have prevented Stjepan's death?
Judge Ehrl exonerated the young men: “Even if someone had called 110 immediately, Stjepan would not have been able to be saved,” she reported the results of the reports.
“He died very quickly from two of the stab wounds.”
Kerim P. and his defense attorney ultimately waived all legal remedies and accepted the verdict.