Roland K. (38) pleads guilty before the jury in Steyr! He admits that he shot his hated ex-brother-in-law in Grünburg. And the prosecution got its first twist: After the crime, the gunman picked up the victim’s biological son and forced him to watch his father die. And then another bang: two more people would die!
“I have never seen such a cold-blooded act,” said prosecutor Andreas Pechatschek at the opening of the hearing. The defendant went to the ex-brother-in-law’s house with his pistol and three full magazines – ten bullets each – and drove 40 minutes from Ennsdorf to Grünburg. There he called his brother-in-law around 1 a.m. “It was not a polite visit, the ex-brother-in-law immediately saw that from the weapon,” said the prosecutor. After the would-be victim and his partner pushed the door closed, the attacker shot the glass door, hitting the hated ex-brother-in-law twice.
“It was a liberation for him”
“Then he collected all the mobile phones, took the cousin, the victim’s biological son, from the first floor and forced him to watch his father die,” Pechatschek explained. Lawyer Hans Jürgen Riedl did not seek contradiction: ‘Yes, the crime was as the public prosecutor described it, and my client pleads guilty.’ But he does not see cold-bloodedness, but rather an understandable affective act, because his client, who, according to the report, is very upset, needs harmony and is empathetic. “It was liberating for him.” The lawyer hopes that the jury can ultimately understand his client’s ‘affect’ and thus decide on manslaughter.
“In the beginning I got along well with my brother-in-law, I helped build a house and we also went to the mountains together,” the suspect says about his relationship with the later victim. But then it turned out that ‘only the material things were important to him’. After her sister’s divorce in 2016, everything changed completely. The court assigned the two children to the father. “The suspect could not accept this. He himself said that with his act he reversed this decision,” said the public prosecutor.
“He only saw the financial aspects and wanted to no longer have to pay alimony,” said the suspect, who said that the biological father “nurtured” the children and that the ex-brother-in-law always had influence over the children. “Personally, I did not blame him for that,” the defendant said when asked by judge Dagmar Gursch, who looked closely at the history of the crime. When the children’s mother wanted to give up this, the hatred became even greater. The suspect and his sister also talked about it the week before the crime. “He always only aimed to get the most out of himself. First it was him, then the money and then the family,” said the defendant, who described himself as “the opposite of him”: “It was never about the money for me.”
“He was an energy robber”
“He was a real energy robber,” said Roland K. When the judge asked if the sister had asked him to help her, he said, “No.” He felt no need to intervene; that changed on the night of March 5.
“Today it will hit the right person”
When asked about the day of the crime, the suspect reports that it is not actually about the custody dispute and the hated ex-brother-in-law. After visiting his brother, he argued with his partner because he didn’t want the swing his brother had offered him. Then we went to a friend’s inn – “I drank seven beers” – he actually wanted to sleep at his friend’s house. “Then the switch turned,” the suspect reports, and when asked by the judge he stated that he probably drove away with the “intention” to kill his ex-brother-in-law. It hadn’t occurred to him to turn around on the way: “It was like I was in a tunnel.”
“It first occurred to me that day to do this,” the 38-year-old said. He took the gun, a Glock, from the gun safe in the living room – ‘I had the gun because my girlfriend is afraid of burglars’ – and said to his partner, with whom the relationship was very bad and ended: ‘Today It comes with the right person.’ But he allegedly did not announce his plan to kill his ex-brother-in-law.
After the crime, the suspect drove away – but apparently not only with the thought of escaping: he also thought about shooting his partner’s ex-boyfriend and his ex-boss. But on the phone, the friend who called him stopped him. Motive; “It didn’t matter,” the suspect said, because he knew his life was over. Then he drove home and texted his sister: “Your worries are over.”
“I no longer had an inner center”
“How do you feel about your crime today?” – asked the judge. The defendant half-heartedly said he was sorry and that it was “a mistake” that he would “undo” if he could. The main motif was: “I had no peace anymore, no inner center.”
Four witnesses and two experts will testify during the trial. Whether the trial actually lasts from 8:30 am to 9:00 pm will depend greatly on the responsibility of the suspect, who is presumed innocent.
The crime did not produce what the suspect would have wanted. The children remained with the stepmother, who now also has custody, and did not return to his sister, the biological mother. “It’s the children’s decision,” says the gunman who took their father. “I don’t understand anything” about the claims the relatives have submitted – such as 50,000 euros each for the victim’s partner and son, 45,000 euros for the daughter, 40,000 euros each for the stepchildren.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
