After the violent death of a 14-year-old girl in Weisendorf, Central Franconia, in January this year, the Youth Chamber I of the Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court found his now 18-year-old brother guilty. The court’s press spokeswoman, Tina Haase, announced this on Wednesday. Accordingly, the court decided against imposing a youth sentence and instead ordered the young man to be placed in a psychiatric hospital. The case caused great consternation in the market town of Weisendorf with around 6,800 residents at the beginning of the year.
The young man was convicted of negligent drunkenness. The court heard that he was under the influence of cannabis and hallucinogenic mushrooms and first attacked his sister and then his mother, who rushed to help, with a kitchen knife. He killed his sister in the process. According to press spokeswoman Haase, the defendant admitted the crime in court – “as far as he could still remember”. The trial took place behind closed doors because the defendant was a minor at the time of the crime.
The verdict is based on an expert’s report on the young man’s culpability. According to this, he had only reduced culpability before taking the drugs because he suffered from a depressive disorder. He then committed the crime under the influence of drugs in a state of incapacity. However, the court saw it as proven that he “negligently caused himself to become intoxicated, which rendered him incapacitated.” Negligent and not intentional, because he hoped that consuming the hallucinogenic mushrooms would improve his mental illness.
Instead of convicting him under juvenile criminal law, which the court “did not consider educatively necessary,” it ordered the young man to be placed in a penal system. His depressive disorder and his drug addiction are to be treated here. In this way, the defendant should be “enabled to achieve the long-term goal of leading a life free of illness and punishment in the future.” Without medical and therapeutic treatment, it is possible that the defendant could commit further serious crimes, it was said.
How long the young man will spend in the psychiatric clinic depends on the success of the therapy. The court will “regularly check the existence of the conditions for the continuation of the enforcement of the measure”. So whether the young man still poses a danger to the public – or whether he can live in freedom again without any concerns.
According to press spokeswoman Haase, the young man’s mother, along with other witnesses, also testified in court. The verdict is not yet legally binding.