The murder trial of a 47-year-old man who set his girlfriend on fire on March 5, 2021 in her tobacco shop on Nussdorfer Strasse continued on Friday at the Vienna Regional Court. The 35-year-old died of multiple organ failure as a result of the severe burns despite four weeks of intensive medical efforts in the course of which several limbs had to be amputated. A video showing the crime was played at the beginning of the trial.
A surveillance camera was installed in the tobacco shop, although the device was damaged by the flames, the images were reconstructed or saved in the course of the investigation. As the video played, there was an oppressive silence in the grand jury room. The jury and the audience saw the accused come into the little tobacconist’s shop, lock the door behind him, immediately attack his victim, hit the woman on the ground and then hit her hard again and again, and finally a black cable around her neck loops and contracts. At the beginning, the tobacconist defends herself against the roughly two-minute throttling process, but her resistance then slackens, which the attacker uses to pour the contents of a 500 milliliter bottle – gasoline – over her and the cash desk. Then he sets the woman on fire. In a split second, the victim is ablaze. The attacker leaves the shop, locks the door and pulls down a scroll bar behind him.
The 35-year-old was “badly dazed and defenseless as a result of the throttling, so the wetting with the fire accelerator and lighting could continue undisturbed,” said coroner Christian Reiter. According to his report, 75 percent of the woman’s body surface was severely damaged by the heat.
Regardless of this, the extensively burned tobacconist – presumably in shock – still managed to get out of her shop on her own two feet after passers-by smashed the glass door with a shopping cart and broke it open. On the video of a witness, which they recorded with her smartphone and which was also shown to the jury, you can see the woman stumbling out of the tobacco shop with burnt clothes and holding on to the shopping cart with her last bit of strength.
The woman fought for her life in a hospital for 30 days. “There is little chance that a person will survive,” said coroner Reiter. The woman went through “excruciating pain” until she passed away on April 3. Reiter’s colleague Daniele Risser also provided an expert opinion, which was mainly devoted to the period in which the victim was treated in the hospital. The woman’s burned skin was “denatured” right down to the muscles, said Risser.
The relatives of the 35-year-olds – her father, mother and a sister – are represented in the criminal proceedings by the Viennese lawyer Rainer Rienmüller. Taking into account the particular cruelty of the execution of the crime and that the parents had to witness their daughter’s agony in an intensive care unit for weeks, Rienmüller explained that in the present case a grief pain allowance was offered that is higher than the usual pain allowance rates. He applied for 50,000 euros for the father, with whom the victim had a particularly close relationship – she had a residence on his farm and also looked after his horses. Rienmüller claimed 60,000 euros for the mother, who suffers from a brain tumor, has had several operations and was cared for and financially supported by her daughter. The tobacconist had a close and intimate relationship with her sister, whom she saw weekly, and the two shared a passion for horses, among other things. The defendant is supposed to replace her with a grief pain allowance of 15,000 euros.
The 47-year-old, who denies the intent to kill, did not want to comment on the reports. Regarding the videos, he said, without audible emotional movement, “I’m sorry.”