Ústí nad Labem - Seventeen and a half years will spend in a prison the former soldier Michal Krnáč who has shot dead an influential member of the North-Bohemian social democrats Roman Houska. The regional court in Ústí nad Labem has accepted the opinion of the prosecution that had characterized the shooting as prearranged murder with robbery motives.
„He has not come to Houska’s home for a job interview as he is pretending to do, but to kill him,“ the judge Jiří Bednář said in justifying the court’s judgement. The verdict is not yet final. According to the court, Krnáš has also violated the property rights in searching the house of his victim.
The vice-governor of the Ústí nad Labem region Jana Vaňhová described to the court the murder of his partner and influential social democrat Houska.
Houska was murdered before the garage of his villa in the North-Western town of Chomutov on 18th November 2013. According to the prosecution, Krnáč has been collecting information on Houska and Vaňhová for several months. Before the murder, he has bought a stun gun to paralyze his victim. Then, he has shot Houska four times. On the stun gun, the police has found a mixed DNA trail, one part of it belongs to Krnáč.
Although the police has caught the killer, the case is still surrounded by suspicious circumstances. Up till now, it is not clear if the murder of Houska has not been ordered by somebody. The killer has admitted to the crime, but later he refused to testify before the interrogators as well as before the court.
And there are too many irregularities on the case. The police has not found any dust or dactyloscopic traces confirming that Krnáč really is the murderer. The ballistic expertise doesn’t confirm one hundred percent that Houska has been killed by a Glock gun that Krnáč, in admitting the murder, has given to the police.
The court decided also on compensation to the survivors. Krnáč has to pay to the close relatives of the victim 2,5 million CZK.
Houska’s partner Jana Vaňhová, his mother and three daughters will receive 240 000 CZK (8700 euros) each. The youngest daughter will be given another one million CZK. Moreover, Krnáč has to pay for the funeral expenditures.
