Her remains were never found – nevertheless, the Munich Regional Court came to the conclusion that Roman H. killed his wife and stepdaughter in Ramersdorf. The verdict for manslaughter also stands before the Federal Court of Justice.
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Susie Wimmer
The verdict against Roman H. for double manslaughter remains in place. On Wednesday, the 1st Criminal Division of the Federal Court of Justice rejected the appeals of the accused, the public prosecutor’s office and the joint plaintiff against the judgment of the Munich I Regional Court. The 47-year-old was sentenced to 14 years and six months in prison in February 2021 because the chamber assumed that he had killed his wife and stepdaughter in Ramersdorf. The two women disappeared on July 13, 2019, and their bodies were never found. The public prosecutor’s office had sought a conviction for murder with the revision, the accused himself had demanded an acquittal.
The second criminal chamber at the Munich I Regional Court had come to the conclusion that Roman H. had initially killed his wife in an unknown manner in July 2019 in the hallway of their shared apartment on Ottobrunner Strasse. When the daughter came home from school in the afternoon, he killed her in the living room of the apartment. The police forensics later found corresponding blood spatters in the rooms. Blood-smeared carpets from the apartment were also discovered in the undergrowth of the Truderinger Forest.
The public prosecutor demanded a conviction for murder: Roman H. first killed his wife and later, to cover up the first act, his stepdaughter. However, the Senate of the BGH followed the judgment of the district court. It was not possible to make any determinations about the pre-crime or the motive of the accused. The Senate denied the murder characteristics of the intention to cover up and the base motives. The Senate also rejected the defendant’s appeal. After extensive taking of evidence, the regional court was convinced of a killing and the perpetration of the accused without making any legal errors, taking into account the numerous traces of blood found at the crime scenes in the hallway and living room of the apartment, the information provided by witnesses and the blood-smeared carpets found.