Trial in Tyrol

Tragedy surrounding ex-politician: murder trial in Tyrol

The defendant described the course of events.

(Bild: Johanna Birbaumer/Krone KREATIV)

A 52-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years' unconditional imprisonment (not legally binding) for the murder of a 75-year-old former local politician in Völs, Tyrol (district of Innsbruck-Land) in November 2023 at the Innsbruck Regional Court on Thursday evening. The trial focused on his sanity. 

The man is accused of inflicting fatal injuries to the head and neck of the 75-year-old former deputy mayor of Völs, Walter Kathrein, with an axe-like object. The accused had confessed during questioning.

Dissatisfied with property transactions
As the reason for the crime, the local man had previously stated that he had been dissatisfied with property deals that he had concluded in the past in or with the municipality.

His skull was shattered and his veins severed.

Der Staatsanwalt

"It was like a horror movie"
At the beginning of the trial, public prosecutor Joachim Wüstner described the bloody deed. "It was like something out of a horror movie," he said of the violent killing of the ex-politician, which had taken place in the defendant's apartment. "The skull was shattered, the veins severed," he continued.

With this act, the accused had abruptly torn a "deserving community citizen" from his life. A psychiatric report would show that although the 52-year-old suffers from a "combined personality disorder", he was sane at the time of the crime.

The accused before the start of the trial.

(Bild: Johanna Birbaumer/Krone KREATIV)

Lawyer brings illness into play
The accused's defense lawyer, Albert Heiss, vehemently contradicted this. "My client cannot be convicted due to his illness," he said. He was "massively suicidal" and belonged in a forensic-therapeutic center. The psychiatric report by Adelheid Kastner - which attests to the man's sanity - is problematic and questionable in this regard: "In psychiatry, my client has already been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, for example". Heiss had already questioned this expert opinion in the run-up to the trial and originally wanted to commission a counter expert opinion.

The man was "severely depressed" and would probably "commit suicide" quickly in custody. He also explained his client's condition with his difficult childhood: "His father and mother killed themselves and he had been on his own since his early youth".

Defendant described the crime
Judge Andrea Wegscheider had the defendant describe the crime on November 29, 2023. "He visited me for a coffee that day," said the accused about the person he killed, whom he called a former friend. The conversations later concerned a "property rezoning", during which his counterpart "threatened" him and "forced him to sell". "I made it clear to him that I didn't want to sell," he emphasized.

Full of rage, I took the first tool I could find and hit him hard on the head.

Der Angeklagte

Everything happened quickly after that. "I finally took the first tool I could find in anger and hit him hard on the head," said the defendant. "Although he was a friend, he wanted to blackmail me", the man explained the reason for this. When asked by Wegscheider whether he had wanted to kill him, the man replied evasively: "I just hit him and didn't think about the consequences." In any case, the act was "not planned".

He suffers neither from delusions nor from schizophrenia.

Gutachterin Adelheid Kastner

In explaining her expert opinion, the renowned psychiatric expert Adelheid Kastner denied all the illnesses brought up during the trial: "He suffers neither from delusions nor from schizophrenia," she stated. "But he does suffer from a serious, long-term personality disorder." However, this is not an illness per se, but can usually - as in this case - be explained by the client's life story.

"A string of disasters"
"The defendant's previous biography was a series of disasters," says the expert. He lost his father, mother and sister at an early age and was "left to fend for himself". This also explains his personality structure and constitution. However, there is no question that at the time of the crime, he knew "who he was facing, who he was and what he was doing." In addition, the 52-year-old was not "dangerous" and therefore did not need to be placed in a forensic therapy center.

Prior to Kastner's expert opinion, two psychiatrists called as witnesses had abstained from testifying. They had certified that the accused had a "delusional disorder" or "schizophrenia" in the psychiatric clinic and had been requested as witnesses by the defense attorney. 

Body only discovered a week after the crime
The body of the former long-time local politician was found in an outbuilding on the defendant's property on December 6, 2023 - one week after his death, according to a post-mortem examination.

The jury reached the verdict in the evening 
The now accused was arrested on the same day. The victim and the alleged perpetrator had known each other for many years. The trial lasted the whole day. In the evening, the jury retired for deliberations. After a relatively short time, they reached a unanimous verdict: 12 years unconditional imprisonment for the 52-year-old Tyrolean for murder. The verdict is not legally binding: the public prosecutor and defense initially made no statement. 

There was no unanimity on the question of sanity: Five jurors were in favor, three against. With four to four, the alleged perpetrator would have been deemed insane, which would have further reduced the sentence.