Jury agrees

Parents found dead son: murder trial in Tyrol

The accused at the trial.

(Bild: APA/MARKUS STEGMAYR, Krone KREATIV)

A Polish man had to answer for murder at Innsbruck Regional Court on Monday. The 31-year-old was accused of killing an acquaintance (36) with a knife at the end of October 2023 in Itter (district of Kitzbühel) through "massive violence". The non-appealable verdict was handed down in the early afternoon: life imprisonment!

The jury considered it proven that the Pole had killed the 36-year-old acquaintance in his apartment. According to the indictment, the court also ordered the 31-year-old to be placed in a forensic therapy center. The verdict is not final.

I am not a murderer. I didn't do it on purpose.

Der Angeklagte beim Prozess

Jurors were unanimous
The verdict of the eight jurors was unanimous. The Pole had pleaded guilty at the beginning of the trial and said: "It was me." However, the dead man's work colleague also affirmed: "I am not a murderer. I didn't do it on purpose."

The 36-year-old acquaintance, with whom he "lived for a few days", had "provoked" him in any case, the accused explained. "He showed me drastic videos from the Second World War in which you can see what the Germans did to the Poles," explained the 31-year-old. They had previously "consumed drugs and alcohol together" and his later victim had "threatened him with a weapon" during their time together.

The bloodshed occurred at the end of October 2023.

(Bild: zoom.tirol)

Afterwards, however, there was a "reconciliation". Afterwards, however, he saw "a stone and several knives" lying in the bed. "My acquaintance wanted physical closeness", the man said during his interrogation.

Apparently no more memories
After that, his memory simply snapped radically: "I woke up with a bump on my head". "I only saw in the morning that he was dead". The Pole attributed the bump to "the stone", the lack of memory to drug and massive alcohol consumption. "Among other things, I drank a bottle of schnapps all by myself," he told Judge Andreas Mair.

The public prosecutor had previously questioned these massive memory gaps. "However, the course of the crime and the actual motive are unclear," said the public prosecutor. The "sexual assault" that the man suggested as a possible motive beforehand could not be proven.

This was a clash between two mentally ill people.

Der Verteidiger des Angeklagten

The man's defense lawyer, on the other hand, addressed the "mental state" of the two men. "Two mentally ill people have come together here." The question would be whether his client was "sane or not", as the combination of "drugs and alcohol" could also lead to insanity. He also emphasized that the accused was in a poor mental state on the day of the crime.

Sane according to expert opinion
An expert opinion finally certified the man's sanity at the time of the crime. "There are no signs of mental illness such as schizophrenia," the expert stated. The accused had been able to "recognize his counterpart" and had therefore not "acted in a delusional state". In any case, the "severe impairment caused by drugs and alcohol" had not led to him acting in a state of absolute insanity.

After around two hours of proceedings, the trial, which was originally scheduled to last until the evening, finally came to the closing arguments. The defense lawyer cast massive doubt on the expert's conclusions. "Some of the expert's statements were unscientific," he explained. For example, he had not taken into account the "interaction of drugs, alcohol and mental state", which could very well lead to a state of complete insanity. The public prosecutor, on the other hand, took a completely different view. "The man's memory gaps are implausible and he is guilty as charged".

Body discovered by his own parents
The 36-year-old's body was found in his apartment in Itter at the end of October 2023. Particularly tragic: his own parents had discovered their dead son in the kitchen. "After returning from vacation", as an investigator told the "Krone" at the time.