On October 17, 2022, a 74-year-old man killed a neighboring couple in the middle of the street, rue des Trévires in Niederkorn. On Thursday, the twelfth criminal chamber of the Luxembourg district court sentenced José Q. to 18 years in prison, eight of which were suspended. The judges considered that the elements constituting the assassination were present. The accused would therefore have acted with premeditation and not under the influence of emotion.
The double murder was preceded by a long-standing neighborhood conflict. That Monday morning, the defendant hid a shotgun in a trash can and ambushed the 62-year-old woman and 54-year-old man in her driveway. After shooting his victims a first time, who were injured, the man fired a second time at point blank range.
Immediately after the events, José Q. admitted to having made the decision to take action two days earlier, after his neighbors had once again prevented him from opening his garage using jammers. However, he later retracted this statement. Thus, he only made the decision to take action on October 17.
Long neighborhood feud
“They treated me like a dog,” the accused assured the court in early October. The couple allegedly harassed him for years. They allegedly destroyed his tomatoes and lettuce heads, soiled his water tank with soap and tampered with his garage. “It wasn’t right what I did, but I didn’t see any other solution,” José Q. said on the last day of the trial. Other people, including former neighbors, also spoke in court of heavy conflicts with the deceased couple.
A psychiatric expert had noted that José Q. had reduced responsibility. A paranoid personality disorder would have limited the accused’s capacity for discernment at the time of the events. Written reasons for the judgment are not available. However, the judges seem to have taken this mitigating circumstance into account. Indeed, the law provides for a life prison sentence in the event of murder. The representative of the public prosecutor had asked the court for a sentence of 20 years in prison.
José Q. was also faced with demands for damages from the victims’ families for a total amount well in excess of 500,000 euros. The judges, however, only accepted seven of the 19 requests. The accused must pay between 1,000 and 8,000 euros in damages to each family. He must also cover the burial costs of his victims.
The judgment is not yet final. All parties can still appeal.
This article was originally published on the website of Luxembourg word.
Adaptation: Antony Speciale
