Court jails 3 minors in murder of Jõgeva man
A court has sentenced three minors to prison terms of between eight and nine and a half years after finding them guilty of murder.
The first-tier Tartu County Court convicted the youths, two girls aged 17 and 16 and a boy aged 17.
The 17- and 16-year-old girls were sentenced respectively to prison time of nine years and eight months and nine and a half years over the murder, which took place in Jõgeva in summer 2025. The 17-year-old boy was sentenced to eight and a half years' prison time.
The prosecutor charged the two girls, aged 16 and 15 at the time of the offense and who for legal reasons cannot be named, with the intentional killing of another person, committed in a torturous and cruel manner. The boy, aged 16 at the time, was charged with taking part in an assault carried out by two or more people and which resulted in a person's death.
The incident took place in the South Estonian town of Jõgeva last summer. According to the indictment, after consuming alcohol together, the youths planned to beat up a man who was present at the scene and was a part of the same group. The man had a physical disability.
The 16-year-old boy was the first to act, spitting juice into the victim's face. The 16-year-old girl then punched the victim in the face and pulled him to the ground. While the victim lay on the ground, both underage girls repeatedly struck him in the head and body with their feet, hands, and a metal crutch which belonged to the victim. The victim was also repeatedly strangled over an extended period; one of the defendants also jumped on his chest. The man died as a result of the assault.
The 16-year-old boy recorded portions of the incident on his phone.
The county court found it proven that the youths had used physical violence against the man in the attack almost continuously, for close to 18 minutes. The court agreed with the prosecution that the killing was exceptionally cruel in the manner in which it was carried out.
At the same time, the court held that the boy should be regarded as a co-perpetrator of the murder in this case. He initiated the conflict and the abuse, and only after that action did the two girls join in, the court found. As a result, viewing the boy's acts of violence separately from the actions of the other two defendants would be incorrect, the court found.
The Tartu County Court did not rule out the possibility that the victim, who was intoxicated, may have made sexually suggestive remarks towards the girls and touched one of them. However, the investigation established that there were no grounds for an argument of self-defense in this case.
The judgment has not yet entered into force.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Mirjam Mäekivi
