The question is as old as humanity itself and is a constant concern of the police, courts and crime writers: Why does a person become a murderer? Roland L. currently has to answer before the first jury chamber at the Munich I district court. The 37-year-old SAP consultant from Munich lived with his wife in a gallery apartment on the Nymphenburg Canal. He is described as courteous, success-oriented, helpful and emphatically polite.
When he discovered an erotic chat with another man on his wife’s cell phone in October last year, he is said to have picked up the knife, stabbed her twelve times and then strangled the severely injured woman, who was lying on the ground and rattling, until she was dead. An extraordinarily “massive outbreak of aggression,” says forensic psychiatrist Matthias Hollweg. But why?
Matthias Hollweg is mostly in the company of criminals due to his job. In Stadelheim, the 62-year-old heads the social therapeutic department for sex offenders, and he also works as an appraiser for the courts. Hollweg has heard the cruelest stories in his long career, harrowing confessions. But in the case of Roland L., who is accused of murder, the expert Hollweg says that he sees “many peculiarities” in this offense.
Actually, L. had learned to fight his way out of difficulties
Roland L. did not take drugs, he was not drunk at the time of the crime. He was seen more as controlled, disciplined. In his youth he even made it into the B-squad of the youth team for the Olympics. The accused found the parents’ quarrels and their divorce to be stressful, says the expert. But L. learned to fight his way out of difficulties. Even more: “His life was shaped by it.”
From secondary school to secondary school, apprenticeship, then technical diploma and another degree. Roland L. had even applied to the police, had an acceptance, but then preferred to go to the tax office. He completed his bachelor’s degree in business administration, worked in process management and as a consultant. He had worked his way up, “he was successful,” says Hollweg. Then the break.
Matthias Hollweg heads the social therapeutic department for sex offenders and works as an appraiser for courts.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
In spring 2020 L. slipped into a depression. He had lost 370,000 euros on the stock exchange through Corona and Wirecard. It was partly his relatives’ money. He was unemployed, but found something again in the summer and started a new job. According to witnesses, says Hollweg, there were problems in the marriage. L. himself claims that everything was fine.
But that year, according to Hollweg, “the divergence between the two spouses worsened again”. On the one hand, the wife, who had inherited several million and in whose condominium the couple lived. On the other hand, Roland L., who struggled to raise his social standing. “The relationship may also have developed into a fight,” says Hollweg. She was dominant, he was socially and psychologically dependent, conflict-averse and inhibited from aggression.
The knife happened to be in the gallery, says L. – Hollweg has a different thesis
Hollweg also certifies that the accused has a certain sensitivity, narcissism and self-esteem problems. And possibly, says the psychiatrist, “his wife slipped away from him too. He got off the winning road.” It is possible that in this mixed situation everything discharged “with a high degree of aggression”.
Roland L. described the act on the first day of the trial in such a way that he saw the sex chat on his wife’s cell phone and confronted her. She reacted disparagingly, accidentally a knife was lying on the gallery upstairs. She said he was faster and stabbed “once or twice”. How this could have happened to him, he doesn’t know.
Hollweg puts forward the thesis that L. could also have acted purposefully and in a preparatory manner. According to witnesses, it was unlikely that there was a knife in the living area in the ordinary household. Even if the woman moved towards the knife and he was faster: L. is only 1.69 meters tall, but well trained and strong. “He was physically superior to her.” He didn’t have to stab any more after taking the knife. The presumably dangerous situation had already been averted. In this respect, Hollweg considered L.’s admission “incomprehensible”.
“He could have stopped the act and called the ambulance”
In addition to other inconsistencies, Hollweg also states that Roland L. only spoke of the one or two stab wounds during the exploration. On the other hand, he told the police that he had subsequently strangled his wife. “I saw a blink in her eyes and she gasped,” he is reported to have said. He wanted it to be over, that she didn’t have to suffer like that.
In fact, L. is said to have stabbed his wife’s head and face twelve times with the knife. The piercing of these parts of the body testifies to a “special will to destroy”. If she was still alive afterwards, “he could have stopped the act and called the emergency doctor”. But L. did not do that. Instead, he is said to have strangled her and later wrapped his wife’s body in a carpet, cleaned meticulously and even washed the bloody sofa covers.
The first jury chamber, chaired by Michael Schönauer, gave the legal notice on the last day of the hearing that the motive for the crime could also be that Roland L. saw his plan as a final failure to be able to share in his wife’s assets. You have strictly separated the financial, there was a marriage contract, “it was dependent on your benevolence”. In chats, a “disdain for his person” can be heard, the woman has distanced herself and turned to another man.
A verdict is expected in the coming weeks
L. replied that he never lived at anyone’s expense. “If I could open up the numbers,” he began and calculated his net earnings. “Also with reference to the second fact,” he continues smoothly, “with this gentleman”: It was not the first time that he was in a relationship where cheating was an issue.
If the first criminal chamber were to recognize greed in addition to the murder characteristic of treachery, it could also determine the particular gravity of the guilt if convicted of murder. Then the 37-year-old L. would not be released after serving a life sentence, which on average lasted around 15 years. A verdict is expected in the coming weeks.