process
Killed Joel: Confession and Murder Pleas
Crosses, figures, candles and flowers stand in Pragsdorf at the spot where little Joel’s body was found. photo
© Bernd Wüstneck/dpa
There are always twists and turns in the trial surrounding the murdered six-year-old Joel. Now the defendant makes a new confession. Afterwards, murder was sometimes pleaded.
A comprehensive one The defendant’s confession has once again led to a twist in the trial of the killed six-year-old Joel from Pragsdorf near Neubrandenburg.
A spokesman for the Neubrandenburg regional court said the 15-year-old defendant had “further engaged in the matter”. “Those involved in the trial have kept their pleas. Youth sentences of several years were demanded, partly for manslaughter and partly for murder.” He did not give any details. The trial takes place behind closed doors.
Was the suspect acting alone?
According to the representative of Joel’s parents, Christine Habetha, the defendant stated, contrary to what has previously been stated, that he acted alone. The “Nordkurier” first reported. The defendant is said to have beaten and stabbed Joel in the Mecklenburg Lake District last September.
Habetha said the public prosecutor’s office had asked for an eight-year youth sentence for murder. Habetha herself, as representative of the co-prosecution, demanded the maximum sentence of ten years for murder and the reservation of preventive detention. The defendant’s defense attorney pleaded for manslaughter, as originally charged, and demanded seven years.
There were repeated surprises during the trial, which has been ongoing since February. At the beginning it became known that the public prosecutor’s office had also initiated investigations against the defendant’s 17-year-old brother. At the beginning of April, after a long silence, the defendant made a partial confession and spoke of the involvement of another person who was not his brother. According to Habetha, there was no longer any mention of an accomplice when he confessed on Tuesday. The confession was therefore made under the impression of the evidence that ruled out another perpetrator. According to the court, the verdict will be announced on Thursday next week.
DNA trace on the murder knife
The violent death of six-year-old Joel last September caused consternation across the country. The public prosecutor’s office accuses the 14-year-old at the time of the crime of hitting Joel in the face several times and stabbing him seven times with a knife with a blade of around 15 centimeters long. According to previous information, the teenager had become entangled in contradictions, and his DNA trace was also found on the murder knife.
The brutal act is said to have taken place in the bushes at the football field in the small village in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Months later, angel figures, memorabilia and a larger cross still stood where Joel died. The defendant had since been released from custody because, according to his own statement, the court saw no reason for detention. The public prosecutor lodged an objection and the Rostock Higher Regional Court overturned the decision.