Aftermath in court

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Judge Marco Mazzia believed the witnesses and sentenced the defendants.

(Bild: Chantal Dorn / Krone Kreativ, Krone KREATIV)

Two men brutally disrupted a birthday party in Lustenau (Vorarlberg). Now there was a repercussion at the Feldkirch regional court.  

The teenager will not soon forget her 16th birthday. Nor will her friends, who were celebrating with her that evening in the old embroidery shop in Lustenau when the two defendants (18, 19) suddenly turned up, even though they hadn't been invited. "We sat at the table and talked to them normally at first," recalls one of the guests on the witness stand.

Then the 19-year-old first defendant pulled out a knife and stabbed the table top several times. "When I told him to leave it alone and put the knife away, he went completely berserk." A wild shoving match ensues. The aggressive guests are taken out into the fresh air shortly afterwards.

But the peace doesn't last long. A short time later, the two kick in the door, with the 19-year-old again waving a knife in front of the shocked guests. He threatens to kill a young man who intervenes: "I'll send you 50 Chechens. I'll remember your face. You're dead!" he shouts. In the course of the scuffle, the victim suffers a cut to his stomach and arm. A guest alerts the police.

Considered admission
At the police station, the two defendants behave no less aggressively, so that an examination for admission to Rankweil LKH is even considered. The second defendant unleashes abstruse fantasies of violence. For example, that the mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer was his role model. During the trial, the defendants initially plead guilty. However, they increasingly qualify their statements and blame their drug and alcohol consumption at the time for their memory lapses.

But the court believes the witnesses. In the end, Judge Marco Mazzia found the first defendant guilty as the main offender and imposed a partial prison sentence of 15 months. He also revoked an earlier suspended sentence. The second defendant also receives 15 months, five of which are to be served. The judge's closing words: "You can now decide whether you want to do your rounds in the prison yard in future or make something of your life after all."