STA, 20 April 2018 – The sentence given to Stefan Cakić by the Ljubljana District Court on Friday caps a closely watched trial which had heard testimonies from Tič's friends, Cakić's relatives and court-appointed expert witnesses since January.
The prosecution had sought a prison sentence of 12 years, having charged Cakić with manslaughter in a state of severely diminished capacity resulting from alcohol and cocaine abuse.
The prosecution and defence have not decided yet whether they will appeal, while Cakić, who was remanded in custody, asked the court to be allowed to start serving his sentence before it becomes final.
Speaking for the five-strong judging panel after they reached a unanimous verdict, judge Ciril Keršmanc said they did not doubt that the defendant was in a state of severely diminished capacity at the time of the act due to a combination of personality disorder, and alcohol and cocaine abuse.
The night before the fatal stabbing on 18 June, Cakić and Tič, who were acquaintances, had been drinking with friends at a Ljubljana bar. Analysis of bodily fluids showed that they were both under the influence of alcohol and cocaine.
The judging panel established that Cakić had been seeking Tič's affection even before the fatal incident and that he had voluntarily accompanied Tič to his flat in the centre of Ljubljana where he stabbed him.
The panel also established that there had, beyond doubt, been "some contact of sexual nature" between the pair that had not been forced.
In this way the panel disagreed with Cakić's line of defence that he attacked Tič in response of sexual abuse or at least an attempt of it. Nor had medical examination supported his claim, but a psychiatrist assessed that something dramatic must have happened before the act that made Cakić respond the way he did.
In explaining the judgement, the judge did not say what exactly triggered the attack, but he did say that Tič could have survived if Cakić had called the emergency response service sooner and not after he had taken a shower, got dressed, taken the keys and locked the flat.
In arguing the length of the sentence, the judge said it was comparable to the sentences for severely diminished responsibility manslaughters in the past 25 years.
Addressing Cakić, he expressed the hope that the sentence would have a sobering effect on him and that he would make use of his time in prison so as not to commit further crimes.
"To make it easier for you to live with yourself it would make sense focussing on something aimed at saving lives rather than taking them. If you pick such a goal you won't end up in a spiral of drug and alcohol abuse again."
Defence counsel Gorazd Fišer told reporters that he would consider an appeal after reading the judgement in writing where his interest would be focused on how the court explained the view that Cakić had intended to take Tič's life.
In the trial, the defence alleged that Cakić had been planted with a date rape drug GHB, something that could not be corroborated or refuted because his blood sample had not been taken until seven hours after the stabbing, while the drug disappears from blood between two and four hours after ingestion.
Cakić's defence also tried to prove that Cakić committed manslaughter in the heat of the moment or because he was upset by some dramatic event before that, which was why he was not of sound mind at the time.
Prosecutor Tamara Gregorčič argued to the contrary; that he was aware of his actions and had a clear intent to take Tič's life, which she inferred from the length of the developments as well as from it that he inflicted some of the wounds on Tič after the actor could no longer defend himself.
Gregorčič welcomed the ruling today, considering that the panel endorsed the qualification of the deed as proposed by her. She was less happy about the length of the sentence, but will decide on whether to appeal after she has read the judgement in writing.
