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In the process of a fatal speeding accident in Munich, the defendant was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, fourfold attempted murder, dangerous physical injury and prohibited motor vehicle racing resulting in death.
That was decided by the Munich I Regional Court on Tuesday.
In addition, the defendant was ordered to be placed in a rehab facility.
The presiding judge Elisabeth Ehrl spoke of a tragic evening, traumatic experiences and "seconds or tenths of a second that decided between life and death".
The defendant accepted the verdict motionless and with downcast eyes.
The German from the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district raced through the city on November 15, 2019 shortly before midnight on the run from a police checkpoint on the opposite lane.
He is said to have fled because he was under the influence of drugs, violated probation, and was afraid of going to jail.
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According to the investigators, he ignored several red lights and recorded - according to the public prosecutor's office, with more than 120 kilometers per hour - two 14 and 16 year old youngsters who were crossing the street.
The 14-year-old died, the 16-year-old was seriously injured.
"I have no words for what happened," the defendant had said about his defense attorney at the beginning of the trial.
He feels “shock, feelings of guilt, thoughts of suicide”.
"Today I can say that I completely underestimated the danger and overestimated myself."
The public prosecutor's office accuses the defendant of murder and several attempted murders.
"The fact that the vehicle he was driving could kill an unpredictable number of people with his driving style, he accepted approvingly," said the prosecutor as the indictment was read out.
"With this approach, he put his interests - namely to avoid a new detention at all costs - in blatant selfishness over the right to life of other road users."
Defense attorney makes serious allegations to the police
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The defense had criticized this murder charge at the beginning of the trial.
"This is a murder charge that would not have been brought up four or five years ago," said his lawyer at the start of the trial.
"How does one come to assume that our client intentionally wanted to murder people?"
She also makes allegations against the police officers who persecuted the defendant after he escaped control.
You have to "deal with the question of whether the reaction of the police was okay," she says.
"With regard to the risk situation, does it perhaps make no difference whether I am the fugitive or the persecutor?"
From her point of view, only a conviction of her client for an illegal car race resulting in death should be possible.
The maximum sentence would be ten years.
"Not every misconduct in road traffic that kills a person is murder."