A series of violent crimes shocked the Schwäbisch Hall region around a year ago. The perpetrator now receives the harshest punishment that exists in German criminal law.
On January 20, 2023, a small, rather inconspicuous man stands in a hardware store in Schwäbisch Hall. He takes a mechanic’s hammer from the shelf, examines the tool, and repeatedly hits it in his palm. Then he pockets the hammer and disappears. A camera films this scene. The man, then 31 years old, had just acquired a murder weapon.
Five days later he will hit an elderly woman in the head with this hammer with full force, more than 20 times, until she is dead. The woman was not his first victim. On Friday, the Serb, now 32 years old, was sentenced to life imprisonment before the Heilbronn regional court for, among other things, double murder.
The violent crimes caused fear and terror in the Schwäbisch Hall region around a year ago. Two older women were found dead in their apartments in the Schwäbisch Hall area within a few weeks – brutally beaten to death. One is 77, the other 89 years old. The convicted man had only moved to Schwäbisch Hall with his family from Serbia a few weeks earlier; according to his description, he wanted to earn money by exporting agricultural machinery.
Bloody bank statements in the cash register
Shortly before Christmas, on December 21st, according to the court, the man followed a 77-year-old lady home from the supermarket and broke into her apartment in the south of Schwäbisch Hall. He took her to the ground and hit her repeatedly on the head with an unknown object. He then stole at least 1,000 euros from a cash register and disappeared. The woman was found dead in her apartment two days later. The permanent criminal service initially assumed that the death was natural – although the emergency doctor was of a different opinion. So the traces were cleaned up instead of secured. Only when the relatives found bloody bank statements in the cash register did the police resume the investigation.
On January 17th, the perpetrator failed in a robbery. He rang the doorbell of an elderly couple in the community of Ilshofen. He then punched the 83-year-old man who opened the door directly in the face, held a toy gun in front of him and shouted: “You, money!” The old man fell but was just able to slam the door. The perpetrator fled without loot.
Skullcap smashed with a hammer
A week later, on January 25th, he gained access to the apartment of an 89-year-old woman in Michelbach. She always left the key on the outside of the apartment door so that the neighbors could check on her. The elderly lady could no longer hear well. She was sitting in her armchair reading the newspaper when the perpetrator attacked her and smashed her skull with the hardware store hammer. Because she had hardly any valuables at home, he again came away empty-handed and disappeared. He threw the hammer and gloves into a bush. The court saw several characteristics of murder, including greed and treachery.
On Friday, the judges imposed the harshest punishment that German criminal law has to offer. Life imprisonment is always available for murder, but there is little leeway – life imprisonment means that the perpetrator can only be released after 15 years at the earliest. In addition, the court noted the particular severity of the guilt in the case – this means that this period is postponed indefinitely. In addition, the subsequent preventive detention was ordered because, from the court’s perspective, it is likely that the man will commit violent crimes again. The verdict even exceeded the demands of the public prosecutor, who only wanted to reserve the right to preventive detention.
“The court pulled out all the stops,” said the defendant’s defense attorney after the verdict. He wanted to file an appeal so that he could examine the written reasons for the judgment in peace. The verdict is not yet legally binding. The defendant himself took the floor at the end of the trial – and vehemently denied all allegations. “I didn’t come here with my wife and children to do something like that,” said the man. Regarding the homicides, he said that was not “his style.” “All I can say is this: God is my witness.”
Which led the investigators onto the trail
There were so many traces that pointed to his perpetrator. For example, shoe marks at the crime scenes or geodata from the man’s cell phone. In addition, DNA traces were discovered at all crime scenes, one with an accuracy of 1 in 1.64 quadrillion, another of 1 in 2.7 quadrillion. “Overall, there is no doubt whatsoever that you committed the crimes,” said the judge. There is also no evidence of complicity, as the defense considered possible in the trial. The hammer video from the hardware store finally put the investigators on the man’s trail.
But what motivates a person to attack lonely, old and defenseless people so brutally, so cold-bloodedly? The trial was unable to resolve this question. The convicted man has a school diploma, he led a regular life in Serbia and worked in his father’s business. He is the father of two children, has never been conspicuous before, and is not aware of any mental disorders. The judge said he also did not act out of emotion. Even the 32-year-old’s lawyer was surprised; his client was always described as peace-loving: “I can’t explain it.”