Murdered handball manager: verdict in the death of Silke T. may be handed down this year

DAfter all, the second trial into the death of Kriftel handball coach Silke T. may end this year. Given a series of defense requests for evidence in recent weeks, the Frankfurt District Court jury has already reserved dates for next year as a precaution. The prosecution and defense are now scheduled to make their pleas next Friday.

A new collection of evidence in the regional court on the terrible event in the late summer of 2015 began in February after the Federal Court overturned the first instance verdict. Judges in Karlsruhe complained that their colleagues in Frankfurt had not sufficiently examined the overall context when it came to the question of whether the defendant had come to terms with the death of a forty-one-year-old man at the wheel of his car.

The first instance made a decision on causing bodily harm resulting in death

After a court celebration in Kriftel, late in the evening of September 7, 2015, Hendrik R. met Silke T. and her partner; a couple stood on a pedestrian crossing and kissed. According to witnesses, R., then a 27-year-old student, drove up to the two of them, the woman ended up on the hood, and a little later under the car. Her body was trapped and Silke T. suffocated.

At first instance in 2018, the court found that the defendant, who he said did not notice that the woman was under the car, could not be proven to commit murder with the certainty necessary to obtain a conviction. manslaughter. He ordered a five-and-a-half year prison sentence for causing bodily harm causing death and dangerous interference with traffic.

The 22nd Grand Criminal Chamber of the Frankfurt District Court, which in recent months has again heard many witnesses and heard a new expert, now considers it even possible to bring down a guilty verdict for murder for base motives. The accused has been in custody since August.