Deggendorf (dpa / lby) – For the accused in the retrial before the Deggendorf district court, there is a lot at stake: in 2017 he was sentenced to twelve years in prison for the killing of his ex-girlfriend before the Passau district court for manslaughter. This year, the case was completely reopened – the 28-year-old faces a tougher sentence. The public prosecutor saw insidiousness and base motives as a given and pleaded for murder and life imprisonment together with determination of the particular gravity of the guilt. Defense attorneys again asked for a 12-year prison sentence for manslaughter. The verdict is expected on Tuesday (9 a.m.).
The accused had already been accused of murder in the first trial. The verdict was then manslaughter because the killing in his sleep – which would have meant the murder characteristic of malice – had not been able to be established beyond doubt, according to the judges. In 2019, two witnesses who testified in favor of the accused in the first trial were convicted of making false statements. This made the retrial possible. Because the Deggendorf judges did not rule out that in 2017 their Passau colleagues would have pronounced a murder sentence without the false statements.
