Besides the now 17-year-old perpetrator, a 16-year-old boy, 15 years old at the time of the murders, is convicted of giving him the assignment to carry out the murders. The younger boy is sentenced to ten years in prison, announces Södertörn's district court.
"The shootings appear to be extremely brutal and utterly ruthless. Three people have been executed, and two adults and five children have been subjected to attempted murder in their homes," says Sofia Jungstedt, chief councilor and presiding judge, in a press release.
Shot his way in
It was on October 12 that the then 16-year-old boy shot his way into a villa in Västberga, south of Stockholm, through a patio door. There, he killed a 40-year-old father of small children before going upstairs and aiming his weapon at the man's wife, who was holding their two-year-old daughter in her arms.
After ordering her to turn around, he shot her twice in the back. She survived but was severely injured. One of the shots hit the daughter, who was lightly injured. In an adjacent room, the couple's other daughter was sleeping.
The following evening, the boy used the same method to break into a villa in Tullinge, south of Stockholm, where he killed two women, 20 and 60 years old, respectively. Another woman and three children were in the house.
Special reasons
The sentence for the crimes that the two boys are convicted of corresponds, according to the court, to life imprisonment for an adult. There are, according to the court, special reasons to sentence them to prison instead of closed youth care, despite their young age.
In a historical context, it is extremely rare for persons under 18 years of age to be sentenced to prison, but in the past year, at least four other teenage boys between 16 and 17 years old have been sentenced to prison for between six and ten years.
I'm afraid that the courts are being influenced by the political pressure to impose harsher sentences. That's not how it should be, says lawyer Kristofer Stahre, who represents the 16-year-old boy, to DN.
A 22-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl, 15 years old at the time, are sentenced to 16 years in prison and closed youth care for two years and two months, respectively, for, among other things, aiding and abetting murder.
Four people were prosecuted and are now convicted of involvement in the triple murder in Västberga and Tullinge last October.
17-year-old boy (16 years old at the time of the murders): Sentenced to 12 years in prison for three murders, seven attempted murders, and aggravated weapons offenses.
16-year-old boy (15 years old at the time of the murders): Sentenced to ten years in prison for incitement to murder and attempted murder, aggravated weapons offenses, and aiding and abetting arson and attempted arson.
22-year-old man: Sentenced to 16 years in prison for aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder, and aiding and abetting aggravated arson.
16-year-old girl (15 years old at the time of the murders): Sentenced to closed youth care for two years and two months for aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder, aggravated weapons offenses, and aiding and abetting arson and attempted arson.
