Charlotte Böhringer murder case

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In the parking garage murder case , Charlotte Böhringer was killed on May 15, 2006 at the age of 59 in her penthouse apartment. She was found dead on May 16, 2006 in this apartment, which is located above her own parking garage in Munich's Baaderstraße. On 12 August 2008, her nephew, Benedict T., in a circumstantial evidence from the Munich I Regional Court convicted fact and establish the special weight of the debt to a life sentence for murder convicted.

Course of events and investigations

On the day of the crime, the victim wanted to leave the apartment for an appointment. Since this appointment took place regularly, it is assumed that this opportunity was consciously used by the perpetrator. The victim was intercepted at the door and pushed back into the hallway of the apartment with hits on the head. It was found that the murdered person was killed with at least 24 blows to the head. Black paint traces could be found on the skull. According to the autopsy, the never found instrument was a heavy object. A hammer with a small edge or a combination tool is conceivable. The cause of death was central paralysis with severe traumatic brain injury in connection with massive external blood loss. The forensic expert considered the time of death between 6:15 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to be plausible, but could not safely rule out a time of death after 7 p.m., since the 90 percent range of the autopsy result was between 3 p.m. and 11 p.m.

According to the investigators' view, only Charlotte Böhringer's nephew Benedikt T. could be considered as perpetrators. He murdered his aunt in order to secure the inheritance share after he feared a quarrel about his abandoned studies. T. denies the act to this day. He said he was home with a cold on the day of the incident, which left him with no alibi. The defense requested a subsequent 3D reconstruction of the crime scene and hoped to find out whether the perpetrator was right-handed or left-handed. Based on the evidence, the perpetrator was believed to have been right-handed. Benedikt T. is left-handed. According to the opinion of a neurologist , a left-handed person could strike fatally with a hammer in his right hand.

DNA traces on the envelope of the will and on the victim's jacket could be attributed to T., but her age could not be determined. The defense presented evidence that T's DNA traces could also be found on other clothes of the victim, as he had regular contact with his aunt, which is why the traces are no evidence of his perpetrator. He could also have left the marks on the envelope before the will was placed in this envelope. At least two 500-euro bills were found in Ts's purse, which had DNA material from Böhringer and blood build-up. According to the opinion of a forensic doctor, however, it was not possible to determine whose blood it was. Every day, Böhringer had certain newspapers hung up in a bag on the door of his apartment so that he could read them in later. Three of these newspapers from the day of the murder, two of them as district-specific editions, were found in T.'s apartment.

On May 2, 2007, DNA traces were secured in Charlotte Böhringer's apartment, which are identical to traces in the Ursula Herrmann case . How this came about has not yet been clarified. This relieving trace was not allowed by the court and is explained by contamination in the laboratory .

Judgment of the Regional Court Munich I and failed appeal

The main hearing , originally scheduled for 13 days, chaired by Manfred Götzl, began on May 2, 2007 and ended after more than 15 months and a total of 93 days with the conviction of the defendant to life imprisonment for murder. It was connected with the determination of the particular gravity of the guilt, which precludes early parole. Cash and newspapers from the victim's possession, DNA traces, opportunity, motive, night-time behavior and the lack of an alibi formed a chain of circumstantial evidence sufficient for the court to convict . In its judgment, the court also found earlier thefts by the convicted person in February 2006 at the expense of the victim, which amounted to over 3500 euros. Benedikt T. had stated that he had acted on behalf of his aunt, who wanted to get rid of an employee and use his help to fake embezzlement.

Greed is a possible motive for the murder : the convict feared that his aunt would discover the failure of his law degree and that he could lose his inheritance as a result. He had told his aunt that he had passed the first state examination, even though he had not taken the exam. He would have had to take the second state examination in the fall - by then at the latest, a dispute could have escalated. Regarding the plausibility of the course of events, the district court Munich I stated in its judgment that T., although left-handed, took the instrument in his right hand, as the apartment door opens to the left. This enabled him to prevent the door from being closed with his left hand and at the same time to slam it without being hindered by the door leaf.

An appeal against the judgment of the Munich Regional Court I dated August 12, 2008 (Az. 1 Ks 128 Js 10979/06) failed at the Federal Court of Justice.

The case has been the subject of intense litigation PR . Ermin Brießmann , long-time presiding judge at the Bavarian Supreme Court , reported the judges of the 1st Criminal Senate to the Federal Court of Justice for perversion of the law and deprivation of liberty in the Benedikt T. case. T. is expected to remain in custody until at least 2028.

Fictitious inheritance litigation with the aim of resuming the criminal case

T's share of the inheritance of 50 percent of Charlotte Böhringer's estate was declared “forfeited” in the judgment of August 12, 2008, which means that this half of the property would have gone to the state. In April 2011, however, Benedikt T's brother Mate sued Benedikt T. in civil proceedings before the Munich District Court I for being unworthy of inheritance . Benedikt T.'s family is firmly behind him, as is his brother Mate. He did not bring the lawsuit in the inheritance matter to harm Benedikt T., but to help him with it. With the filing of the lawsuit, the intention was to avoid the loss of the inheritance to the state and at the same time to force the Munich judiciary to raise again evidence in the context of the civil litigation and to assess the evidence. Benedikt T. and his family hoped that important aspects for a retrial would come to light.

After the civil chamber had heard many witnesses from the murder trial again, it judged the criminal chamber's assessment of evidence in the grounds of the judgment of August 12, 2008 as problematic. The civil judges saw decisive evidence as not yet convincingly proven. Because essential pieces of the chain of circumstantial evidence of the criminal judgment were broken, Benedikt T. decided not to defend himself against the civil court action of the brother any longer. Then came against Benedict T. one now legally valid default judgment in which his disqualification by conduct was found. As a result, the entire inheritance fell to his brother Mate.

Efforts to retrial

A group of supporters of Benedikt T. (nickname "Bence"), which calls itself "Citizens' Initiative ProBence", demands the resumption of the criminal proceedings . The Augsburg Regional Court rejected the retrial on December 5, 2014. The Munich Higher Regional Court confirmed this decision on July 24, 2015. The family of Benedict T. had previously 250,000 euros reward for new clues awarded that result in a final conviction of another offender. T. lodged a constitutional complaint against the decision of the Higher Regional Court , which was rejected on April 18, 2016.

On February 1, 2019, the convicted perpetrator Benedikt T. applied for another retrial at the Munich District Court I. The Augsburg District Court rejected the application in May 2020.

literature

filming

The case is the subject of the documentary Indictment of Murder. A friend in court of Daniela Agostini from 2010.

Even the documentary It wasn't me! Two judgments and many doubts by Gunther Scholz from 2016 is dedicated to the case and above all sheds light on the connection to the Ursula Herrmann case .

This murder case was also dealt with and presented in a semi-documentary manner in the broadcast Fact Mord on August 24, 2016 on Sat.1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Böhringer murder: charges against judges ; in: Abendzeitung München from March 21, 2010
  2. ↑ a b c Digital Crime: The crime scene as a 3-D model ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from May 11, 2010
  3. ↑ a b Parking garage murder ; in: focus.de from August 12, 2008
  4. ↑ murder of "parking garage millionaire" ; in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from May 15, 2007
  5. ↑ 500 euro notes with traces of blood . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 25, 2013.
  6. Jump up in the Böhringer murder case . In: Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung , December 21, 2007.
  7. ↑ Böhringer trial is drawing to a close . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010.
  8. ↑ Witness contradicts own testimony . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 7, 2011.
  9. ↑ How a DNA scan turned into a disaster . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 17, 2010.
  10. ↑ The secret of trace J73.03.3 in: Süddeutsche Zeitung online on 17 May 2010
  11. ↑ a b c d Internet portal of the citizens' initiative ProBence
  12. ↑ Full text of the decision of the Federal Court of Justice of April 28, 2009, Az. 1 StR 171/09
  13. ^ BGH confirms Böhringer judgment ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from May 17, 2010
  14. ↑ Christian Rost: In case of doubt for the convicted. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , May 25, 2013, accessed on May 3, 2020.
  15. ↑ Obituary for Ermin Brießmann ; in: Der Spiegel , issue 35/2010
  16. ↑ Murder of a multi-storey car park millionaire: The trial is to be reopened in: Augsburger Allgemeine from November 29, 2013
  17. ↑ Mysterious criminal case: Your friend, the murderer ; in: Spiegel Online from May 20, 2012
  18. ↑ a b c Convicted parking garage murderer hopes for a new trial ; in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Online from January 25, 2012
  19. ^ Böhringer heritage: No money for the state! in: tz-online from January 24, 2012
  20. ^ Böhringer murder: judges reject new trial ; in: tz Online from December 6, 2014
  21. ↑ Family fights for the convicted murderer . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , April 25, 2014.
  22. ↑ Constitutional complaint failed - No new trial in the Böhringer murder case . In: Abendzeitung Munich , May 3, 2016.
  23. ↑ Criminal attorney wants to reopen the case of "parking garage murder" . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 15, 2019.
  24. ↑ Toth lawyer Peter Witting: The detention made him hard. In: Munich evening newspaper. December 21, 2019, accessed December 30, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Court: "Parking garage murder" is not reopened. In: sueddeutsche.de. Retrieved May 28, 2020 .
  26. ↑ agostinifilm.de