As of: March 14, 2024, 4:18 p.m
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At the beginning of the trial for rape and murder, the defendant (M) is brought by judicial officials into the courtroom of the Itzehoe Regional Court in the China Logistic Center.
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
The act in public in front of his son on a sidewalk in Heide caused a stir.
Now the husband of the woman who was killed has to spend a long time in prison.
The district court rules on murder.
Itzehoe - The Itzehoe regional court has sentenced a 55-year-old man to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and rape.
Their 13-year-old son had to witness the fatal shot on a sidewalk in Heide on October 31, 2022.
The man had previously raped his 37-year-old wife in their shared apartment in Chemnitz.
The presiding judge Johann Lohmann said the chamber was convinced beyond a doubt that the defendant intended to murder.
With the verdict in the trial, which lasted around ten months, the chamber followed the prosecution's demand for punishment and also noted the particular gravity of the guilt.
Defense attorney Hermann Frank, however, pleaded negligent homicide and demanded a sentence of four years and eight months.
The 55-year-old admitted the rape during the trial.
The 37-year-old was walking with her 13-year-old son on a footpath when her husband, a restaurant owner who lives in Chemnitz, got out of a car.
As a result, a shot was fired from close range, fatally hitting the woman.
After the rape, the 37-year-old fled with the boy from their shared apartment to a women's shelter in Heide.
After the shot, the defendant had an acquaintance drive him to the police and turned himself in.
Defense attorney Frank was unable to convince the court with his version of what happened.
Accordingly, his client did not intentionally fire the shot that hit the woman in the mouth.
The defendant dropped the pistol's magazine into a sports bag in the car.
“The defendant was convinced that the weapon was unloaded,” said the defense attorney.
When they met on the sidewalk, the woman leaned her upper body forward, extended one arm and hit the gun.
The man unintentionally pulled the trigger.
The target of the defendant's anger was not the woman, but rather a supposed rival.
If he had wanted to kill the woman, he would have had the opportunity to do it out of public view in the days before.
The presiding judge rejected this version.
“The claim that a shot was fired by accident lacks any plausibility.” Lohmann asked why did the man calmly get back into the car in view of his wife lying bleeding on the ground and let himself be driven to the police?
He told the police officer at the station that he had shot his wife and that she alone was to blame for everything.
The defendant, who listened intently to the reasons for the verdict, adjusted his version of events several times to reflect the state of the evidence.
The taking of evidence based on chat histories clearly showed that the husband had the intention of killing his wife from an early age.
He also threatened her with this several times.
The marriage was characterized by conflict, violence and alcohol.
After the rape, the woman finally decided to leave her husband.
After he tracked her down in the women's shelter in Chemnitz, she went to the women's shelter in Singen.
The man followed her there too.
Lohmann said she finally felt safe in the women's shelter in Heide because she left her laptop and cell phone behind in Singen.
However, the husband was able to follow his wife's chat with friends via a SIM card from his company that she used and thus tracked her down in Heide.
Because she didn't know this, she communicated openly with her friends about her whereabouts.
The verdict is not yet legally binding.
dpa