Sentence confirmed

Jealousy murderer remains behind bars for life

The victim was resuscitated, but died shortly afterwards in hospital.

(Bild: laumat.at/Christian Schürrer, Krone KREATIV)

A businessman who killed an alleged rival with five stab wounds in Marchtrenk in March last year has been sentenced to life imprisonment. The appeal panel at the Linz Higher Regional Court saw no reason to change the sentence.

On March 31 of the previous year, the accused had killed an employee he suspected of having an affair with his wife with five stab wounds in his company's storage area. He then forced a 19-year-old employee with the bloody knife to drive him to a café. On the way, he called his wife and said: "I killed your lover, now I'm going to prison and then I'm going to kill you". He was arrested a short time later.

A "cross-broken" man
Defense lawyer Andreas Mauhart asked for the sentence to be reduced and believes that life imprisonment is only justified for multiple murders or exceptionally brutal acts, torture or similar. His client - a "cross-brother" for a long time who had unfortunately slipped into drug addiction - had acted out of "the oldest motive in history", jealousy.

He had killed the man, whom he had mistaken for his rival, "very efficiently and as one would commit murder". The senior public prosecutor, on the other hand, considers five "violent stab wounds to the abdominal region, resulting in bleeding to death" to be brutal enough to impose a life sentence. The defendant said that he regretted the crime and hoped that God would forgive him.

Two stabs were fatal
The Court of Appeal saw no reason to change the sentence. The confession put forward by the defense had been made under an "overwhelming burden of proof", and the defendant had taken the stand during an ongoing search. The stabs with the 20-centimeter-long knife blade were massive, two of them - each on its own - fatal. In addition, the accused had quickly relapsed after a relevant previous conviction.