A woman was tried to be burned alive in Mynämäki – A strange explanation was heard in court – 2024-02-21 04:27:26

The district court of Varsinais-Suomen has sentenced the person born in 1995 Markus Mikael Aaltonen for attempted murder to an unconditional prison sentence of six and a half years.

The court considered it proven that Aaltonen had sprayed gasoline on a woman he knew and set her on fire.

The convict admitted that he had sprayed gasoline, but he claimed that the woman had started the fire herself. The court did not find the explanation credible.

– It cannot be considered probable that a person, aware of what has been sprayed on him, would light the fire himself.

According to the court, the woman’s life was saved because a 31-year-old man who was there helped extinguish the fire and because the woman was quickly hospitalized.

The act took place last July in the woman’s apartment in Mynämäki. The court discussed the matter in January.

According to the victim, she had been setting up a flower bed when two men marched into her apartment. Police preliminary investigation material

Small debt

It turned out in court that the background of the events was debt collection. The woman owed Aaltonen’s friend who helped extinguish the fire.

On July 12, the men had gone to the woman’s apartment. Aaltonen, who had gone ahead, had refueled a sports drink bottle at the gas station. The remaining 31-year-old paid for the fuel.

After this, events progressed quickly.

The purchase of gasoline took place at 2:03 p.m. and the victim called the emergency center at 2:26 p.m., when the two men had already left the apartment and the fire had gone out.

According to police measurements, it takes 12 minutes to walk from the gas station to the victim. Consequently, the men only have time to stay at the apartment for a very short time.

According to the victim, he had been planting a flower bed with his neighbor when the men had come unannounced and entered his apartment.

When the woman also went in, cigarettes were smoked in the apartment and there was an argument about a debt of a few tens of euros. In this context, Aaltonen sprayed gasoline on the woman’s face and clothes, which was also splashed on the carpet on the floor.

Shortly after this, Aaltonen lit a fire.

Wandered in the forest

After the incident, the men left the apartment. The police arrested the 31-year-old man from his home less than an hour later.

Aaltonen, on the other hand, was caught only the next day, when he himself reported to the police. He told the court about the events before his arrest.

– He had run in panic in the forests of Mynämäki for about a day, slept for a few hours and continued to wander, after which he had called his father that he needed a ride to the police station and then threw his phone into Mynäjoki, the district court’s verdict says.

The prosecutor demanded that the 31-year-old man be convicted of aiding and abetting aggravated assault.

The district court considered that there was no evidence that the 31-year-old knew that Aaltonen would set the victim on fire instead of just threatening. His actions to help the victim also spoke in favor of the fact that it was not, as presented by the prosecutor, aiding and abetting aggravated assault.

The district court convicted the man of aiding and abetting an illegal threat. The four-month prison sentence was offset by the fact that the man had already been without freedom in July-November due to the incident.

Serious injuries

The victim received serious injuries in the situation.

In addition to the limbs and stomach, there were burns on the face, neck and chest. According to the district court, they were still visible in the photos taken before the trial, also in the generally visible parts of the body.

Some of the burns have been deep and required surgical treatment. The victim was hospitalized for three weeks, part of which was sedated on a ventilator.

Based on medical reports, the injuries in the neck area have been serious. In addition to the skin, there has been redness, swelling and blistering at the mouth of the esophagus.

– You can already see from the pictures that the injuries and their treatment must have been very painful, states the district court.

The court ordered Aaltonen to pay his victim EUR 25,000 for pain and suffering and other temporary inconvenience, and EUR 8,000 for suffering.

In addition, Aaltonen was ordered to compensate the victim EUR 50 for the damaged pillows and bedding, EUR 255 for the destroyed carpets, EUR 20 for the clothes he was wearing at the time of the act, EUR 200 for the aquarium fish, and EUR 60 for the destroyed sofa.

Murder or attempted murder?

The district court stated that Aaltonen had come to understand that the probable consequence of his actions was death. It was thus an attempted murder.

It remained to be decided whether it was an attempt to kill or murder. The latter requires that the act is clearly more outrageous than the former.

The court stated that the fire had started quickly and impulsively in the situation and had caused serious injuries to the victim.

– The district court states that it is clear that burning a living person causes severe pain and terror to the victim.

According to the law, the attempted murder was thus committed in a particularly brutal way by setting the victim on fire and in a cruel manner, causing severe pain to the victim.

– The act must also be considered gross in its entirety, because it was done completely out of the blue at the home of the person concerned in a situation where [uhrilta] has come to collect a debt, the judgment states.

Thus, according to Varsinais-Suomen’s verdict on Tuesday, Aaltonen was guilty of attempted murder.

The judgment is not binding.