The case of the high-profile murder outside a university in Borås in November 2020 has resulted in a verdict after a long and complex investigation. The accused, a 22-year-old, was detained in March 2021 but released. However, he was later remanded in custody for murder and aggravated weapons offences. The investigation revealed that two perpetrators intended to kill the 25-year-old victim. The accused has been sentenced to 14 years in prison based on the evidence presented by the prosecutor. The evidence was considered so strong that the district court had no doubt that the accused, with others, committed the murder. New evidence emerged when the police found and seized the getaway car, triggering charges after a three-year investigation. One witness, a crown witness who gives information about crimes to reduce his own sentence, claimed the defendant confessed to the murder. However, the investigation did not produce any concrete evidence linking the accused to the crime, such as DNA, blood, or the murder weapon. The man was also cleared of attempted murder.
It has been a long road to a verdict in the case of the attention-grabbing murder outside the university in Borås in November 2020. The accused 22-year-old was first detained in March 2021, but was released. He was in custody in another case when prosecutor Andreas Ekengren again requested that he be remanded in custody for murder.
According to the investigation, it is clear that two perpetrators were at the scene of the murder and that together they intended to kill the 25-year-old.
The 22-year-old is now sentenced to 14 years in prison for murder and aggravated weapons offences.
“The evidence that the prosecutor has presented in the case is so strong that it is beyond reasonable doubt that it is the accused person who, together and in agreement with one or more other people, has killed the plaintiff by shooting him,” the district court writes in a press release.
Before charges were brought, the investigation had entered its third year. Decisive for the prosecution was that new evidence came to light in connection with the police finding and seizing the BMW which, according to the prosecution, was used as a getaway car after the murder.
Photo: The police
Last December, something also happened that makes this murder trial different from others. A man came forward as a crown witness, i.e. a witness who gives information about crimes in the hope of being able to get a reduced sentence for crimes of which he himself is suspected.
The Crown witness’s information was startling. The man claimed during the trial that the defendant had confessed to him that he was the killer.
Otherwise, the investigation contained no concrete evidence that actually links the 22-year-old to the murder. There are no DNA traces, no blood, no murder weapon.
– In the case, it has not been investigated which of the two perpetrators at the scene held the weapon, but the investigation has shown that the crime was committed as an accomplice. It is therefore clear that the common goal of the perpetrators was to take the plaintiff’s life and that they strengthened each other in that intention, says councilor Ylva Meyer in the press release.
The man was also charged with attempted murder, when a witness at the murder scene was hit in the hand by shrapnel from a ricochet. The man is cleared of this suspicion because the prosecutor was unable to show who held the weapon. The court further writes that it has not been made clear that the perpetrator who was not holding the weapon had any intention against the witness.
The District Court agrees with its judgment.
The text is updated.
Read more: “Risk of false designations”