26-year-old sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing 79-year-old in Helsinki's Malminkartano
Helsinki District Court sentenced a 26-year-old Samuel Jaakko Sarka to life imprisonment for murder. He stabbed and assaulted an unknown 79-year-old man in Malminkartano in March.
26-year-old sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing 79-year-old in Helsinki's Malminkartano
Helsinki District Court imposed a life sentence on a 26-year-old man who killed an unknown elderly man in Malminkartano in March. The court assessed the act as particularly brutal and cruel.
26-year-old Samuel Jaakko Sarka had spent the evening in a bar called Laiska kissa. He took a photograph of himself with a hunting knife and left the restaurant. Later, he encountered a 79-year-old man named Pekka near Malminkartano station, who was returning from grocery shopping.
Sarka attacked the elderly man with a knife. He stabbed the victim in the back and chest. The victim tried to escape but collapsed a few metres away. The perpetrator continued the violence by striking and kicking the man lying on the ground. He also verbally abused the victim, spat on him and filmed the act on his phone.
The violence lasted approximately seven minutes. Sarka left the scene at one point but returned running to continue the assault. He sent videos of what he had filmed to an acquaintance with the message "this is how we do it". Security camera footage captured him saying "this is how we do it" and laughing.
A bystander neighbour witnessed the violence from a balcony and called the emergency centre. He went to help the victim and found him dead. Police found the perpetrator in the restaurant based on witness descriptions provided by the eyewitness.
Sarka admitted to killing the victim but denied murder. According to the court, he had a blood alcohol level of approximately 2.3 per mille and was under the influence of various substances. However, the court did not consider intoxication significant, as based on video recordings the man did not appear particularly intoxicated.
The act was, according to the court, surprising: the absence of defensive injuries and the knife wound to the back indicated that the 79-year-old man was not prepared for the attack. The court considered it particularly degrading that the perpetrator filmed the act, insulted the victim and left him lying on the ground multiple times.
Sarka is to be held in Vantaa prison. The sentence is not final.
Source: Yle Uutiset