Lucerne man gets 20 years in prison for murder of partner
Published: Thursday, Nov 9th 2023, 17:00
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The Lucerne Criminal Court has sentenced a 36-year-old man from the canton of Lucerne to 20 years' imprisonment for murder. He had taken the life of his partner in 2021 with 65 stab wounds. The verdict is not yet final.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered an outpatient therapeutic measure to accompany the sentence, as was announced at the sentencing on Thursday afternoon. There is no pardon for such a brutal femicide, said the judge.
The defendant must also meet the civil claims of the private plaintiffs - the victim's three underage children. He must pay them damages of CHF 10,857 and compensation of CHF 70,000 per child.
The accused had used massive violence and had acted consistently and mercilessly, the judges justified the verdict. He had carried out a total of 65 stab wounds in three different rooms and had not allowed himself to be deterred. His victim was far inferior to him with her height of 1.60 meters and body weight of 55 kilograms.
The defendant's statement that he had been attacked by the victim was not consistent with the evidence. The punctures on the victim's hands indicated much more that she wanted to defend herself against him. The accused had also not sustained a single injury.
No doubts about capacity to judge
During the trial in October, the defense lawyer had requested that the interrogations of the accused from 2021 be classified as not usable. This was because his client had been limited in his ability to be questioned due to a Long Covid disease.
The judges rejected this application. They had no doubts about his ability to be questioned. Nor had anyone noticed that he was "severely limited" and there were no indications of "mental deficits".
The court made it clear that it was not questioning the defendant's Long Covid illness. However, it doubted the severity of the symptoms, as the defendant made around 22 trips to Ticino and back during his sick leave at the time, took part in online further education and did a lot of sporting activities in his free time.
Furthermore, the explanation of a "profound disturbance of consciousness" during the crime due to Long-Covid only arose very late in the investigation proceedings. The accused only claimed "memory gaps" during later interrogations.
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