The body of the destroyed berlin pensioner lay in a deep freeze for ten years. The suspected murderer kept silent ten months after the discovery of the crime, when the trial at the regional court began in the second round.
The defenders of the 56-year old trodelhandler announced on the sidelines, however, that their client will possibly play on the 8th game of the season. November, the second day, testify.
The defendant sab in a dark jacket behind bulletproof glass as judge peter schuster opened the trial. A first attempt had fallen through two weeks ago after the defendants had been forced to leave the court. This time the start succeeded without difficulties. Only a few minutes later, the prosecutor was able to read out the indictment in the case, which has shocked people all over the country.
The 56-year-old is accused of murder for greed, insidiousness and to facilitate another crime. The man, who had gained the trust of the then 80-year-old widower, allegedly shot his victim around the turn of the year 2006 to 2007 in his apartment in the city’s prenzlauer berg district and hid him in a freezer specially purchased for the crime.
The defendant’s goal was "to obtain the victim’s entire assets," according to the indictment. For about ten years, the trafficker had collected the widower’s pension of about 2000 euros per month. The suspected perpetrator had committed gross negligence to cover up the death of the pensioner. For example, he wrote tax returns and letters to the property management company in the name of the victim and with a forged signature, placed a forwarding order for mail and always paid rent for the apartment.
The defendant and the pensioner had gotten to know each other as neighbors some time before the crime, it was said on the sidelines of the trial. When the senior’s wife died in march 2006, the 56-year-old had taken care of the widower. At that time, the defendant had temporarily operated a small store for buying and selling, but it had not gone well. Presumably on new year’s eve, he visited the widower and killed him with a shot to the head.
Acquaintances of the accused were now present in the courtroom. "He was friendly, kind and helpful," a former imbiss operator later said on the court floor. The man had been a regular customer of his. "He was always there to help with any technical problems," said the 69-year-old. "What he is said to have done to the pensioner is inconceivable to us." Only after the arrest of the racketeer he had heard "that he was probably often in a gambling house". According to the accuser, the trial will examine whether the 56-year-old is addicted to gambling.
It was a neighbor who had become suspicious. Because he had not seen the lonely widower for a long time, he first contacted the house management. After unsuccessful phone calls, the man was able to convince a police patrol to look into the matter, prosecutor reinhard albers told the court.
"The officers then made the gruesome discovery," albers continued. The apartment was clinically clean, there was a tablecloth on the refrigerator in the kitchen and a flowerpot on it. "Everything looked like a doll’s house."
The accused was arrested the next day. He is also the subject of a further investigation. He is also said to have collected the pension of a woman who has disappeared since the end of 2000.