Comment by Arch-TK
2 years ago
Source on premeditated?
Everything I saw made it look like it was spontaneous (and then he put a lot of work and some poor planning into trying to hide it).
I could obviously be wrong, I didn't really spend that much time on it.
(Note: I know he was initially found guilty of first degree murder but it appears that first degree murder doesn't necessarily require premeditation.)
Yeah, I don't think the murder itself was premeditated, but he did treat the event with a sort of self-serving callousness that gave the perception that he did not care about Nina's life beyond how it affected his.
that's not what premeditated murder is though. That's trying to cover up the murder which is also a crime, but a far cry from premeditated murder which is one of the most heinous crimes recognized by the legal system.
Which is why I said I don't believe the murder was premeditated.
He was able to plea to second degree in exchange for the location of the body and essentially a confession.
They convicted him of first degree because without the body, there was no evidence that he didn't plan on the murder as well. Ironic in a way. He hid the body to try and hide the evidence that she was dead, but turns out that only made things worse for him.
If he had called the authorities and copped to it as an "accident of passion", he'd probably be out by now.
Elsewhere in this thread (or maybe it was another thread I followed on it), didn't someone mention he suspiciously left his phone at home the day he committed the murder, whereas he would normally have the phone with him?
Seems like it was probably premeditated to me if so
one funny thing is when Nina disappeared, everyone she knew called her cell phone... except for Hans, who knew there was no way she would answer and probably didn't want to waste the minutes (this was in the days before common infinite minutes cell plans)
I think he planned it.
* He testified on the stand that Nina was a terrible person and a danger to their children. A bold strategy when you're on trial for murdering your wife.
* He was angry that Nina preferred that one of his sons not play violent video games like Grand Theft Auto, because he believed his son was special and might learn something about how violence really works.
* Right before he was arrested, he handed the hard drives from his computer to his lawyer. His lawyer gave the drives to the court about 3/4 through the trial. The judge was extremely displeased. The court had the county's forensic investigators go through the drives. The drives were formatted with NTFS, NOT ReiserFS. One insane email chain discovered in it was Nina mailing Hans about the logistics of planning for new clothes and school supplies for the 2 kids for the upcoming new school year, Hans response was "It is Moscow 1942, you are the Germans, I will prevail".