The 16th small criminal chamber at the district court Munich I carried out a meticulous examination of evidence. The court heard four experts, several eyewitnesses and police officers. It had videos made from the driver’s perspective, a neurologist also had a say, and even a cloud image from the TU provided information about the lighting conditions on the day of the accident. But even after all the technical, medical and factual pieces of the puzzle, no conclusive picture emerged. And above all no answer to the question why the then 60-year-old Nestor P. raced in September 2017 at 128 km / h in the city on Wasserburger Landstrasse, crashed into a stationary car without braking and without reaction and three young people lost their lives.
Judge Robert Hamberger heads the appeals chamber at the district court, and he does so with great caution. Relatives of those killed are sitting in the courtroom, as is the family of the driver involved in the accident. On the second day of the appeal hearing, after almost nine hours, he explains that no verdict will be announced today. The pleadings are pending, there is no time to deliberate on a judgment. You want to do that in peace to “do justice to the matter”.
In their eyes, the families of the accident victims will probably never experience justice. The family of the slain Baptiste no longer want to pursue the process. “The defendant’s stubborn behavior was unbearable for her,” says her lawyer Christian Klima. Before the Munich District Court, Nestor P. had received a four-year prison sentence and, like the accessory prosecution, appealed. Negotiations have been taking place again since last week, and the issue is meticulously dealt with.
Exactly four years ago, a French family visited Munich during the Oktoberfest. Julien, 36 years old, Anne-Sophie, 29, and her fiancé Baptiste of the same age as well as the mother of the siblings were on their way to a family celebration in Trudering on September 16, 2017. A brother of the family lived in Munich and had invited them. Four of the French guests in Bavarian costumes sat in a rental car, drove the Wasserburger Landstrasse out of town, and were only a few hundred meters away from their destination. Julien drove the car and had stopped at the red light at the intersection with Jagdfeldstrasse.
Accident expert Nikolaus Gotthard presses the play button: Those involved in the process now drive imaginary in the car of the person who caused the accident on the Wasserburger out of town by video. There was a slight twilight, dry road surface, good visibility. The road bends slightly to the left. The traffic light on Jagdfeldstrasse can be seen from a good 100 meters away, as can the red brake lights of the cars waiting there. Gotthard calculates that the accident could have been avoided at a slower pace. And even if Nestor P. had braked at 128 km / h, he speaks of “avoidability”.
But the then 60-year-old raced into the rear of the small car without reaction, which was about to pull up after the traffic light had switched to green. The Opel was accelerated forwards by 84 km / h within 0.14 seconds, “that’s the blink of an eye,” says the appraiser. At the end, the bonnet of P.’s BMW SUV is unfolded like an accordion. The victim’s car is so compressed in the rear that there is hardly any passenger compartment left. Anne-Sophie sat in the back left, was not buckled up. “But the seat belt status is irrelevant in the accident,” says Gotthard. A passerby was able to rescue the 68-year-old mother of the siblings from the passenger seat of the burning car.
Neurologist Jan Remi from Großhadern Clinic explains in court that the defendant had suffered from epileptic seizures since 1980 and that a year later a benign tumor in his brain was removed. Then the man had been seizure-free for 35 years. According to witnesses, P. kept the car safely in the lane at a speed of over 120 km / h. According to the neurologist, the course of the accident could not be explained by an epileptic seizure. The psychological expert Caroline Pöhlmann also attests to the defendant “inconspicuous cognitive abilities”. The psychiatric expert Cornelis Stadtland also found no evidence of any disturbances. P. stated to him that he drove “at most 60”. He didn’t have a blackout or any seizure. “He also had no feelings of guilt towards those killed,” says Stadtland. A verdict is not due to be pronounced until mid-October.