What happened exactly on the evening of 17 February in the head of Willi B., can probably no longer be clarified. In any case, the judges of the 70-year-old retiree could not find a consolidated right-wing extremist worldview. The jury court at the district court of Heilbronn has sentenced the Russian-German to five years' imprisonment for attempted murder and dangerous bodily injury. Willi B. had stabbed three young refugees and sometimes seriously injured them.
The 70-year-old had been drunk on that evening with a knife from his apartment to the nearby Heilbronn market square. There he stabbed a 17-year-old Afghan, a 25-year-old Iraqi and a 19-year-old Syrian. The fact that Willi B. attacked another refugee, as the indictment said, did not reveal the evidence.
Willi B. himself had said to police officers on the night of the crime that he wanted to set a signal against the refugee policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel. However, according to the jury, chaired by Roland Kleinschroth, the defendant decided to do so "spontaneously under the impression of a personal crisis" and in a state of considerably reduced guilt.
Defense does not want to go into revision
Willi B. had drunk on Tattag. According to an appraiser, the alcohol did not tolerate the medicines he took. Willi B. also suffers from diabetes, which was not recognized at the time, and early dementia. Added to this was the concern for his daughter, who had probably driven the 70-year-old that evening very well. All together, Willi B. had been able to control his behavior at the time of the crime only to a very limited extent.
The deed was committed insidiously. Since Willi B. was physically inferior to the three refugees, he had stabbed his guileless victims from behind. Malice is a murder feature. However, the retiree did not grasp the scope of his actions, which is why the judges did not start with low motives. In favor of the 70-year-old, the court assessed his remorse, his apology to the victims, which he had each compensated with 2000 euros, and that Willi B. has no criminal record.
The defense will not go against the verdict in revision, as attorney Anke Stiefel-Bechdolf told the Spiegel on demand. The defender of Willi B. had requested in her plea a probation sentence for dangerous bodily injury. The prosecution and the co-plaintiff considered the attempted murder proven. Instead of five, they had demanded seven years in prison.