Americans Convicted In German Murders

Three American teen-agers were convicted Friday of murder for dropping stones onto passing cars from a highway overpass, killing two women and injuring four other motorists.

A Hesse state court sentenced the three, all sons of U.S. soldiers stationed in Germany, to up to 8½ years in prison. Prosecutors had demanded the maximum 10 years.

The three youths hadn't denied dropping heavy stones on passing cars from a highway overpass. Their lawyers argued it was an ill-conceived contest to see who could hit moving vehicles without consideration of the danger they posed.

Prosecutors said the youths progressed from small stones and a shovel to rocks as heavy as 18 pounds, climbing on a plastic barrier along a pedestrian walkway. Six cars were hit, injuring four people and killing Sandra Ottmann, 20, and Karin Rothermel, 41.

"They didn't want to kill anyone. They wanted to hit vehicles," defense lawyer Ulrich Endres told reporters after closing arguments. The trial was closed to the public because the defendants - ages 14, 17 and 18 at the time of the Feb. 27 attacks - are being tried as juveniles.

The oldest defendant, received an 8½-year jail term, the next oldest got eight years in prison, and the youngest received a seven-year sentence. The three were convicted of two counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. They also were convicted of endangering traffic.

Although the teens treated the stone-throwing as something of a contest, using the approaching headlights to target the vehicles in the darkness, their lawyers said testimony from the victims and their families had impressed upon them the gravity of their actions.

"They're visibly suffering from the consequences of what they have done," Endres said.

Prosecutor Manfred Vogel on Wednesday demanded the maximum 10 years in prison because of the grave consequences of their actions and because they persisted in throwing gradually larger objects onto the highway.

Prosecutors used two arguments to support the murder charge: that the youths acted maliciously and that the murders were committed using objects that endangered the public at large - an argument that can be made, for example, in the case of a bomb attack.

Under German law, minors convicted of crimes are held in a juvenile facility until their 24th birthday, when a court may decide to transfer them to an adult prison.

Among those in court Friday was Elfriede Becker, whose car was hit by a stone.

"I wanted to see them. I came, and I saw them, and I said, 'This can't be.' They are so young, yet they did such a terrible thing," said Becker, a retired state worker.

She and her husband were traveling home from a birthday party when a rock fell on their car's steering column, destroying it. Becker said she has been haunted by investigators' statements that they escaped serious injury or death by several hundredths of a second.

"I had breast cancer three years ao, and I said, 'I'll get over this,' and I did. This story, I can't get over," she said. "You can fight against a disease, but something like this just stays with you."

By Katharine Schmidt © 2000, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed