Trial for attacks in Fellbach: Man says he did not mean to kill

The trial of a 35-year-old man for attempted murder in Fellbach has begun before the Stuttgart Regional Court. He provides insights into his life, which was shaped by drugs and alcohol from an early age.

His father was an alcoholic who left the family when he was one year old and died at the age of 40. He was sexually abused by his grandfather and never really loved by his mother because she saw in him the image of his father, who was “a monster”. He was bullied as early as elementary school, but he managed to complete his secondary school education and then worked for a friend's father as an installer of photovoltaic modules.

On the day of the crime he was “definitely drunk”

He said he had come into contact with all kinds of drugs in his youth. He smoked his first cigarette at the age of eleven and had his first drink of alcohol at the age of 13. His consumption increased especially after the death of his father, with whom he had been in regular contact – one to two bottles of vodka or ten to 15 bottles of beer per day. “I drank even before work,” said the defendant.

He first consumed cannabis at the age of twelve and tried amphetamines at the age of 15. He later took heroin, cocaine, crack, ecstasy, knockout drops and medication. On February 9 of this year, the day he is in court, he was “definitely drunk”.

The public prosecutor's office accuses him of going to an acquaintance's house in Fellbach that evening to get drugs. To make sure he got them, he had a folding knife with an eight-centimeter blade. He found the acquaintance sitting on the bed and ordered him to give him the drugs. After the acquaintance refused, the accused pulled out the knife after a brief argument and stabbed him in the neck area two to three centimeters wide and eight to ten centimeters long. When the last one tried to flee out the window, he said to him, “Leave it, I'll catch you anyway.” He then took a bag of amphetamines, an opened bottle of vodka and tobacco from a table and fled. According to the prosecution, the victim was able to call the emergency services, was taken to hospital and rescued that night. The stab wound narrowly missed the windpipe.

The defendant reports delusions

The accused denied this accusation. He admitted to having drunk a vodka and sparkling water mix and smoking a joint before work. During his lunch break he drank two Jägermeisters and after work three or four wheat beers. While shopping he then met the victim, whom he had known for a few weeks, and asked him if he had any “tablets to calm down”. The victim gave him four tablets, which he took with another vodka and sparkling water mix. “After that I had delusions and saw my dead father next to me,” said the 35-year-old. He then went to the acquaintance with a friend and asked “what kind of crap he had given him”. The friend also had a friend visiting. When he told the acquaintance to “stand up and talk like a man”, the friend put him in a headlock. He said, “let go, I have a knife,” pulled the knife out of his pocket, opened it and wanted to stab the man in the shoulder because he was having trouble breathing.

“You caught me by the neck”

When he stabbed backwards, he felt resistance and pulled the knife back. He asked the acquaintance if he had hit him. He said no. “I didn't see any blood either.” Later that night, the victim woke him up and showed him the stab wound, saying “You hit me in the neck.” But he told him not to worry. He told the police that he had been “stabbed by one of the Hells Angels.” He did not hurt him on purpose. “I don't just go and stab someone,” said the 35-year-old.

A further five days of hearings are planned for the trial, and the verdict is expected to be announced on October 9.