Mother Stabbed: 32-Year-Old Sentenced in Salzburg
The man, who according to a psychiatric report was not accountable at the time of the crime, will therefore be placed in a forensic-therapeutic facility.
The prosecution had requested an unconditional and indefinite commitment. The verdict is final.
The man had called the police emergency number himself on the evening of October 22nd last year, claiming that two unknown and armed robbers had broken into his apartment during a dinner with his mother and demanded money. One of them allegedly threatened him with a gun, while the other "stabbed" his mother, who was sitting at the table, without warning with a knife lying around. However, he managed to drive the attackers away with pepper spray.
For the woman - who was living in Bavaria at the time and had been visiting her son - any help came too late. Her head was almost completely severed from her body in the sudden attack. She died from the massive blood loss. The search for the alleged perpetrators resulted in a large-scale police operation, including roadblocks with vehicle checks. Two days later, investigators arrested the now 32-year-old.
Accused vehemently denies allegations
The investigators found his version to be implausible and also incompatible with the evidence at the crime scene. "It is clearly refuted by the evidence," the prosecutor also stated in her opening statement on Wednesday. The accused has vehemently denied the allegations so far - and stuck to his version of the unknown murderers in court. He claimed to have worked at a gas station and often handled large amounts of money there. "Maybe someone saw that and wanted to ambush me." The fact that the kitchen knife with a blade length of 21 centimeters - which he had bought shortly before the crime - was in the kitchen was a "dramatic coincidence."
According to a neuropsychiatric report, the 32-year-old suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. According to the prosecutor, it is likely that he will commit further serious crimes in the foreseeable future under the influence of his illness. "He is not able to recognize the wrongfulness of his act." Therefore, a murder charge cannot be legally attributed to him. Therefore, the jury decides on an indefinite commitment. During the emergency call made by the man on the night of the crime, which was now played in court, he seemed relatively composed.
Voices, Hallucinations, Paranoia
In January 2022, he was already in inpatient psychiatric treatment for two weeks. He told the doctors at the clinic at the time that he heard commenting and commanding voices and reported persecution and hallucinations - he saw scorpions on the ground, for example. A fact that he initially denied in court and then consistently tried to downplay. Incidentally, he quickly stopped taking the medication that was prescribed to him for treatment at the time: "Because I was feeling well." As some witnesses testified to the police, the 32-year-old was said to have been "a bit strange" after breaking up with his then-girlfriend.
There was also a possible religious component to the illness. The man from Salzburg had been baptized not too long ago and, as he himself said, briefly avoided evangelical relatives like his mother. Investigators found his discarded baptism book in the trash bag in front of the house. He also reportedly planned to donate up to 200,000 euros to the Catholic Church - even though he could barely support himself. "Did you perhaps feel pursued by demons and hoped for help in this way," asked the court psychiatrist - which the accused denied.
(APA/Red)
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