Jičín stabbing death: partner of woman who bled out gets 3.5 years

A court has sentenced a man to three years and seven months in prison after his partner in Jičín bled to death from a stab wound: the woman did not want an ambulance called, and he did not call one. The verdict is not yet final.

The tragedy took place on 13 January this year in an apartment on Boženy Němcové Street in Jičín. It began with an argument late in the evening, the exact time of which has not been established. Both partners were drunk.

An argument with a knife

During the argument the woman began waving a knife around. “The accused grabbed her by both hands and jerked them sharply down towards her knees. In the scuffle the blade entered her right thigh and caused a stab wound with massive bleeding,” police spokeswoman Karolina Macháčková described the fight shortly after the investigation began.

The consequences were tragic. According to prosecutor Lenka Faltusová, the knife caused massive arterial and venous bleeding, which the accused helped to stop. He then cleaned up the traces in the apartment and laid the woman in their shared bed. During the night or early morning hours of 14 January she died of external bleeding from the femoral artery and vein.

He admitted guilt but disputes the punishment

Petr Mizera cooperated with the police from the outset, confessed and expressed remorse for what he had done. In the opinion of a court-appointed expert, the injury could indeed have occurred as described in the case file, and the victim could even have inflicted it herself. However, with professional medical help her chances of survival would have been high. The accused did not call an ambulance because the woman herself did not want it.

At Thursday's hearing, prosecutor Faltusová accepted the guilty plea but proposed an unsuspended sentence of five years. The accused did not agree with this. “Yes, I want to plead guilty in full and I agree with the legal classification of the act. But I do not agree with the proposed punishment. It is very harsh for me — both the prison term and the expulsion,” Mizera told the court. He has no previous convictions in Czechia and no record of offences.

In addition to the prison term, the convicted man must pay a health insurance company just under six thousand crowns, and the victim's sister 300,000 crowns in compensation for non-material damage and almost 21,000 zlotys in damages.

The verdict is not final. The prosecutor waived the right to appeal, but the accused reserved the time limit for a possible appeal. Since guilt has been admitted, an appeals court would decide only on the size of the sentence.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz