Salzburg

The relationship of the couple, who wed in 2017, has recently been contentious. Both the woman, eleven years her junior, and her husband had each married a son from previous cohabitations. The woman eventually gave birth to a child together. Since 2020, the couple have been running several restaurants in Pinzgau. However, the two split in January 2022.

According to the prosecutor, there had been enormous relationship problems since 2020, also caused by jealousies, work overload and health problems of the defendant. He had become unable to procreate after the operations. Another childhood wish remained unfulfilled. “He struggled to accept the breakup and started monitoring his wife. She developed an extremely possessive behavior.”

The tones between the spouses had become rougher, described the prosecutor. The man’s insults and insults against the woman became more violent, even as she tried to find constructive solutions. A month before the crime, she filed a complaint against him, which resulted in a criminal complaint for bodily harm, dangerous threats and persistent prosecution. As a result, the restaurateur is said to have pushed his wife into an argument in February 2022. She fell and badly injured her hip. Furthermore, he is said to have stalked her from January to April 2022 and threatened to kill her in autumn 2021 and from 2022 onwards.

Since April 16, the defendant has been prevented from entering and approaching and a temporary injunction has been issued. “A day before the crime, the woman withdrew her question in a devastating way. He must have told her that he himself has a girlfriend. Evidently he managed to appease her,” said the prosecutor.

The next day, the accused persuaded his wife to come to one of the inns he had rented to help him. A fight broke out in the kitchen, which eventually escalated. The defendant put his wife in a headlock and threatened her. “A fight developed,” the prosecutor said. The images of the crime scene would testify to a struggle for survival by the little young woman. Her husband violently choked her and stabbed her in the chest three times with a kitchen knife with a 21-centimeter blade. The victim bled to death.

The prosecutor was certain that her husband had planned the crime. She had packed a bag of clothes and toiletries for the getaway. After the bloody deed she left the inn and hid. Her mother found her daughter-in-law dead shortly after. The following day, the husband turned himself in to the police and confessed to the fact. He cited his wife’s insults and insults as a motive for the crime. A court expert found that the defendant’s ability to acknowledge the wrongful act was impaired but not eliminated. He attested to an adjustment and personality disorder.

The defender of the previously innocent man, the lawyer Franz Essl, tried in his opening statement to put the victim in a bad light by accusing the woman of extramarital affairs, humiliation of her client and greed. The fact that her husband pushed her and that she sustained a hip injury as a result, “she made up,” said the defense attorney. The woman fell on a sheet of ice.

On the day of the bloody act, the woman was supposed to help her husband with the bookkeeping, Essl explained. And her client was settling, so she packed her bags. “There was no escape plan.” The quarrel in the kitchen had an unfortunate development. “It’s not homicide, it’s manslaughter. There was an emotional intoxication in a state of emergency, in a generally understandable and violent emotional state.” The day before, the defendant had visited a crisis intervention. “He was sent home after 45 minutes. If there had been a psychiatrist, the emotional intoxication would not have happened.” Over the course of the relationship, the man developed more and more depression and also used more and more alcohol.

The defendant said that his wife, whom he loved very much, did office work such as computer science and reservations. “She was actually the brains of the company and I was the executive.” After all, he was willing for her to take over the business and for him to take better care of the children. However, conflicts have arisen over the financial transfer. “Fighting was the order of the day.”

After his emergency operation, he had felt very physically and mentally stressed, he told jury president Martina Pfarrkirchner. On May 13, there was another argument about money in the kitchen. He threatened to reopen the case against him. She scolded him and he pushed her against the door. “I said ‘now get out of here’ so she punched me.” When he put her in a headlock and told her to calm down, she bit his forearm. “Then he grabbed a knife and there was a scuffle.” When he choked her, he let go of the knife. “I reflexively grabbed her and stabbed her. It wasn’t my intention to fatally wound her.”

The victim’s lawyer Stefan Rieder asked for 70,000 euros each for four relatives. The trial will continue tomorrow, Thursday. The verdict will probably be pronounced then.