Man on trial for fatal stabbing in Darmstadt assisted living community

Before the district court Darmstadt a 41-year-old man has had to answer for manslaughter since Tuesday. The German Markus M. is said to have fatally injured an acquaintance in an argument with two stab wounds. He was under the massive influence of drugs. The crime happened last summer in a shared apartment in Darmstadt, where the accused and his girlfriend lived. The friend of the two was a guest there – the later victim.

All three are said to have been under the influence of drugs on the night of the crime. Markus M. reports in the courtroom about “weed, crack, heroin and vodka with benzos”. The couple’s 46-year-old acquaintance was homeless and was supposed to be staying in the shared apartment that evening. In the prosecutor’s indictment, Markus M. is accused of stabbing the other man with a kitchen knife.

After the indictment had been read out, the presiding judge, Volker Wagner, took the floor and confronted the accused with his drug problem and the conflicts in his partnership. M. has a criminal record. If it should be confirmed that he killed his victim out of jealousy, “then the question arises whether that is not just manslaughter but even murder,” said the judge. Placement in a rehabilitation center is also being negotiated. After consulting his attorney Anette Flach, the accused testified and described a dispute with his girlfriend. The defender explained: “He repeatedly accused her of wearing a mini skirt without underwear.” That’s why there was an argument on the evening of the crime, in which the man hit his girlfriend in the face.

Guest interfered in a couple’s argument

The acquaintance meanwhile cooked in the apartment and finally intervened in the dispute. The defendant cannot remember exactly what happened next. According to his own statement, he took a kitchen knife and stabbed the guest in the buttocks. When he pulled the knife out of his body, there was a scuffle. He himself took the knife again and stabbed it in the other’s chest. “The knife he used to cut the potatoes was probably the knife used in the crime,” suspected the accused.

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When asked by an expert why M. stabbed his victim in the buttocks with a knife, the accused replied: “I was angry.” M. did not want to stab the acquaintance in the chest. The exact course of events remains unclear even after this statement.

A witness who also lived in the shared apartment reported that the accused often reacted aggressively when living together. Just a few days before the alleged act, Markus M. hit him in the face with his fist because he left hair in the sink, the roommate said.

On Tuesday, an emergency doctor described the accused’s “strangely surprised impression” in his testimony: “He asked if the victim was stable. I replied that it is stable dead.” The process continues. The verdict is expected to be announced on Wednesday.