They were playing table tennis in a Neuperlach green area, drinking beer, then a 23-year-old is said to have pulled out a knife during an argument for a completely trivial reason, stabbed one of his friends and injured another in the hand. Five people then ran away – leaving Stjepan J., who was critically injured, lying on the ground. He died a little later. “It happened like that,” the perpetrator now says in front of the Munich I regional court, “I’m very sorry for everything.”
In the courtroom, not only suspected perpetrators and victims meet, but also their families. The father of the defendant Kerim P. is sitting in the audience, and further ahead Stjepan’s parents are crying. “He was a very emphatic person, he enjoyed the company of other people,” says Stjepan’s sister. The 25-year-old was helpful and “never saw anything bad in people.”
The 1st Jury Chamber wants to get an idea of who this Kerim P. is in the dock. The young, massive man comes from Bosnia-Herzegovina and moved at the end of 2019 to follow his parents and brother, who had already moved to Munich. P. tried various training courses, from laboratory technician to butcher and warehouse clerk. He had a good childhood, he says. And only when asked by presiding judge Elisabeth Ehrl did P. say that where he grew up, “violence was normal.” There were no laws, “we took matters into our own hands.” And he hesitantly reports that he is taking antidepressants and antipsychotics.
According to the indictment, on Saturday afternoon of October 29, 2022, Kerim P. met with other men, some of them fellow countrymen, in a park on Karl-Marx-Ring in Neuperlach. They knew each other, occasionally played table tennis, and in the evening the men bought beer. People were talking and drinking in the skate park area. Kerim P. and Stjepan J. clashed; according to the police, this had happened several times in the past. This time Kerim P. dropped a bottle and Stjepan J. is said to have reprimanded him. Later, Kerim P. is said to have made fun of the fact that the other guy had been beaten up a few months ago.
The argument escalated, Kerim P. pulled out a knife and stabbed Stjepan J., who was sitting on a park bench, eight times. J. fell to the side onto another friend, who was also injured by the stabs. Seriously injured, he dragged himself a few meters away from the bench before collapsing. The group fled, Kerim P. is said to have followed them a few meters, then he also moved away. It was only hours later that a walker discovered the 25-year-old’s lifeless body.
The defense attorneys Joachim Schwarzenau and Maximilian Donhauser explain on behalf of their client that he deeply regrets the crime. P. also wants to apologize to the sister of the man who was killed, but she just shakes her head. “It won’t bring us back Stjepan,” she says, “I don’t want to hear anything.”