Did he die because he got the door wrong? After the 39-year-old Martin S. (all names changed) got drunk early in the morning in a homeless shelter in Schwabing, apparently accidentally, in Beate M.’s room, she lit a mattress and the room caught fire. The woman was able to save herself on the balcony, Martin S. died. Beate M. suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, she told the police that Martin S. wanted to “stop time”. The 48-year-old has to answer for arson resulting in death before the Munich I Regional Court – and is silent.
Beate M. is in a wheelchair because of a leg amputation. With it she constantly rolls forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards. In court she refused to testify that no one would believe her anyway, she says. She repeats the words “I won’t say anything” several times. She is also taciturn to her lawyer Heidi Pioch. In order to tell the whole story, she had to start in her childhood, says Beate M. then. But she doesn’t want that. She seems a little defiant, but also exhausted. Later, during the witness interviews, she lays her head on the table and closes her eyes. Meanwhile, the deceased’s mother, who appears as a joint plaintiff, fights back tears.
The indictment states that the heavily intoxicated Martin S. went to Beate M.’s room on the morning of June 28 last year. Apparently he was wrong on the floor: he lived in room 404, she in 204. He is said to have lain on the floor or on the bed. Prosecutor Michael Schönauer explained that the man also suffered from “motor failures” due to illness. Beate M. later told a police officer that Martin S. wanted to “stop time”. When asked repeatedly, she confirmed this impression.
Beate M. felt threatened and decided to light the mattress in the room to start a big fire, according to the prosecutor. Within a few minutes, the objects in the room as well as the linoleum floor and the room and balcony doors caught fire. The dormitory had to be evacuated. Finally, the fire department discovered the body of Martin S.
The public prosecutor assumes that Beate M. set the fire to expel the intruder. She herself fled onto the balcony and was pulled onto the neighboring balcony by other roommates. Other residents of the home informed the police that Beate M. lived in the room where the body was found. Police officers told the court that when she was questioned at around 8:30 that morning, she asked for beer and cigarettes.
Beate M. has been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia for some time and was in inpatient psychotherapeutic treatment in a clinic in May and June 2022. Only five days before the incident did she move into the dormitory on Alzeyer Strasse – and stop taking her neuroleptics.
The 48-year-old is currently being held in a psychiatric clinic. At the beginning of August, the 2nd Criminal Court will decide how to assess what Beate M. is accused of.