Woman apologizes in Lucerne court for killing her mother
Published: Wednesday, Dec 20th 2023, 18:51
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On Wednesday, a 48-year-old woman had to answer to the Lucerne Criminal Court for the murder of her mother. Her defense lawyer demanded an acquittal, the public prosecutor a life sentence.
In his summation, the public prosecutor stated that the defendant had persistently brought about her mother's death by banging her head against the edge of the stairs 17 times, strangling her and finally suffocating her with a pillow. She did this because her mother refused to support her financially and cut her out of the inheritance.
In addition, she had a difficult relationship with her mother and a childhood that she found difficult. According to her own statements, she had felt trapped in a golden cage from an early age. According to the public prosecutor, these particularly reprehensible motives and the manner of execution qualified for the offense of murder.
He demanded a life sentence and an outpatient measure. For her friend, who is accused of abetment, he demanded a 14-month conditional prison sentence. She had acted with intent by destroying evidence. However, the fact that she was dependent on the main defendant to a certain extent should be taken into account as a mitigating factor.
Client is not a "murderer"
In his plea, the defense lawyer called for his client to be acquitted. The defendant may be a narcissist with a severe personality disorder, and she may have been financially dependent on her mother, but she was not a murderer.
If the offence was to be categorized, then at most the offence of manslaughter could be considered, according to the defence lawyer. The defendant's personality disorder, the resulting increased impulsiveness when offended and a certain loss of inhibition could have had an impact on her behavior.
The defense lawyer also emphasized that a so-called murder weapon, with which the accused is said to have beaten the victim, could not be found. This was purely an assumption by the public prosecutor's office, which could not be proven.
Reduced sentence demanded
The defense lawyer for the girlfriend of the main accused said in his plea that the offense of favoritism was not fulfilled. His client had not aided the main defendant by pulling her out of the mess, but only herself.
He raised the question of whether his client could have been part of the main accused's plan to frame her for the crime. Who would the police have believed, the victim's daughter or his client, who was very confused at the time?
He called for a reduced sentence. If at all, a conditional fine should be imposed. His client's willingness to cooperate during the criminal investigation should also be taken into account in the sentence.
Poisoned with antifreeze
The defendant was accused of killing her mother in April 2020 by strangulation and blunt force trauma. She is also alleged to have tried to poison her mother in January 2020 by pouring antifreeze into coffee cups she had brought with her.
The mother survived due to rapid medical treatment, but suffered severe acidosis, acute kidney failure, pneumonia and several other consequential injuries. A friend of the accused is accused of favoritism. She is said to have accompanied the accused to the scene of the crime and then destroyed evidence.
Accused does not remember
The accused denied the attempted poisoning. She partially confessed to the accusation of murder. She did not remember choking her mother, hitting her head several times against a landing or pressing a pillow against her face. But she knew the autopsy report and it must have been like that.
In her last words, she stated that she had committed an incredibly terrible act and that the guilt would always remain with her. But she had not tried to poison her mother. "What I did was bad enough. I am incredibly sorry."
The verdict will be announced in writing next year.
©Keystone/SDA
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