The indictment in this case was filed by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Głogów in December 2014. A month ago, the District Court in Legnica issued a guilty verdict.
The 63-year-old man was beaten on Saturday, September 27 of the previous year, on Krochmalna Street in Głogów. Mariusz W. was drinking alcohol with friends in one of their apartments. During the conversation, he heard from an acquaintance that the 63-year-old man who lived nearby had behaved offensively toward his mother. Angered by this information, he went to the man’s apartment, and when the man opened the door, he began repeatedly punching him in the head and torso and kicking him with his shod feet in the head and all over his body. When the victim fell to the floor, Mariusz W. went home.
After a while, a friend concerned about what had happened and other people arrived at the victim’s apartment. An ambulance was called for the 63-year-old man lying on the floor. Despite almost immediate resuscitation, the man died.
A forensic medical expert determined that the victim had suffered bodily injuries, including a contused wound to the back of the head in the occipital region, an extensive hematoma of the left orbit, a deformed nose, and multiple fractures of the ribs on the right side, causing the chest to collapse. These injuries resulted in an intracerebral hematoma and a ruptured spleen.
The direct cause of the victim’s death was internal bleeding resulting from the rupture of the pancreatic vein. Histopathological examinations ruled out the possibility that the vein had ruptured due to disease.
Mariusz W. was placed in pretrial detention during the investigation. He was charged with causing serious bodily injuries to the victim that resulted in his death. When questioned as a suspect, he confessed to committing the crime. He described the course of events, claiming not to remember some details because of the alcohol he had consumed (at the time of his arrest, he had a blood alcohol level of 1.7‰). However, he was certain that he had gone to the deceased man’s apartment alone and that he alone had beaten the victim (there had initially been doubts about this fact).
Mariusz W. had previously been convicted of offenses against property, riding a bicycle under the influence of alcohol, and failing to comply with court bans. He had not been convicted of offenses against life or health. For causing serious bodily injuries resulting in a person’s death, he faced a sentence of up to 12 years in prison.
On October 7, 2015, the District Court in Legnica sentenced Mariusz W. to 6 years in prison. The prosecutor, who had requested a 9-year prison sentence, asked the court for a written justification of the verdict. At the beginning of November of that year, after reviewing the reasoning of the judicial panel, which drew attention, among other things, to the defendant’s conduct during the proceedings, his confession and expression of sincere remorse, the prosecutor assessed that the sentence imposed would have sufficient rehabilitative value and fulfill its role in both specific and general prevention. The prosecutor therefore decided not to file an appeal, considering the verdict justified.
District Prosecutor’s Office in Legnica/ii