The Darmstadt district court sentenced a mentally disturbed 24-year-old who ran over an 85-year-old man in Astheim at the end of January to psychiatry and prison.
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After the accident at the intersection of Mainzer and Berliner Strasse at the end of January 2021, the Astheim fire brigade illuminated the accident site for investigative work.
(Archive photo: fire department)
ASTHEIM / DARMSTADT – The trial of the tragic accidental death of an 85-year-old from Astheim in January ended with a judgment in front of the Darmstadt Regional Court on Friday. According to the ruling of the 11th Large Criminal Chamber, the 24-year-old defendant has to go to prison for one and a half years for negligent homicide and endangering road traffic. Before he can begin the sentence, however, he first goes to the closed psychiatry for an indefinite period of time. The placement was also ordered by the court.
In the meantime, an acquittal with subsequent security proceedings had been in the room because of the man’s incompetence, which was determined by the expert. The presiding judge Volker Wagner explained why a prison sentence was imposed in his judgment. The expert, Professor Dr. Hartmut Berger, found that the driver involved in the accident was partially controllable at the time of the offense. So he was only able to act rationally to a very limited extent.
“Anyone who kills must be punished for it,” says Wagner. If a perpetrator cannot see this, as in this case, or cannot act according to this insight, he should be placed in preventive detention for the protection of the general public. The defendant had only later presented himself to the police. After he hit his victim at the intersection of Mainzer and Berliner Straße in Astheim with full force with the car and threw him meters into a front yard, he initially drove on.
The 85-year-old had died of serious skull injuries at the scene of the accident and was only found hours later by neighbors and police officers. His wife had previously reported him missing after not returning from a walk. The report of a traffic expert could not clearly determine from the location of the lane whether the collision was intentional or whether the driver had lost control of his car. Neighbors had heard the 24-year-old make wild death threats in his apartment.
The renowned psychiatrist Hartmut Berger had diagnosed the defendant with severe paranoid schizophrenia with paranoia. Immediately after his arrest, he was taken to a closed institution.
In her plea, public prosecutor Laura Heidrich saw the defendant’s guilt as proven and did not want to rule out intent. She demanded three and a half years imprisonment for this – also after prior treatment for his mental illness.
Defense attorney Natalie Loscher, however, emphasized that her client was very sorry for the act. She spoke out in favor of a prison sentence of less than two years, which could still be suspended. The placement in the closed psychiatry should also be on probation.
The court did not want to comply with this. Judge Wagner emphasized that the defendant is still a threat to society in his condition. Because of his schizophrenia, he cannot perceive the world around him like others, feels threatened and acts in an uncontrolled and unpredictable state. In the forensic psychiatry in Haina, the prerequisites for successful therapy are given. If this actually succeeds at some point, the question of a possible probation period with regard to the prison sentence can then be reassessed.
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