The crime shocked the country and opened the debate on coronavirus deniers
A 50-year-old German man was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday for the murder of a gas station attendant he shot dead after his victim demanded that he put on a mask to serve him amid the coronavirus pandemic. The court of Bad Kreuznach, in the western state of Rhineland-Palatinate, emphasized in its verdict that Mario N. committed a murder, as the prosecutors had demanded. The defendant’s defense had sought a manslaughter conviction on the mitigating circumstance that the man was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crime.
This happened on September 18, 2021 at a gas station in the town of Idar-Oberstein and caused great commotion in Germany at the time. During the six-month trial, the possible authorship of the crime played no role, as this had been proven. The security cameras at the gas station have accurately recorded all events.
Mario N. confessed at trial that, angry because the gas station attendant, 20-year-old Alex W., wouldn’t sell him beer until he put on the mandatory mask due to the coronavirus pandemic, he returned home, picked up a gun and turned a hours later, he returned to where he shot his victim in the forehead, who died instantly. Mario N. did not have a gun license for the revolver used to kill the clerk, so he was also convicted of that crime. After committing the crime, the already convicted man fled, although he voluntarily surrendered to the police the next day.
Alex W.’s mother participated in the trial with her attorney as a private prosecution. The young man’s murder sparked a heated debate in Germany about the radicalization of coronavirus deniers and the restrictions the authorities are applying to fight the epidemic.
At the trial, Mario N., a computer scientist by profession, claimed to have suffered from Covid-19 restrictions and regulations. His father committed suicide in early 2020 after developing cancer. Before attempting to kill the suspect’s mother, who lay tormented in a hospital for months before dying. The convicted man was unable to visit his hospitalized mother or attend his father’s funeral due to the pandemic. The man stated that he felt “treated like an idiot” when the young clerk reminded him of the obligation to wear a mask at the gas station. When the judges read the verdict, the convicted man just stared at the table, while his victim’s mother burst into tears and placed her hand on her heart. “He acted in a treasonous manner and with low motives,” said court president Judge Claudia Büch-Schmitz, stressing that the victim was completely defenseless and that the suspect “deliberately brandished his weapon at the last minute” before he shot. .
Source: La Verdad
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