Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency:  Newsflash

A drink-driver who killed this young woman and escaped with just a fine and no jail time has been rearrested and faces a retrial after a key witness said the driver killed her deliberately for a dare.

Theresa Stahl, 20, was killed when the driver, identified only as Niclas H., 21, because of local privacy laws, drove his VW Golf at night after attending a wine festival on 23rd April 2017.

While reportedly over the limit, he operated his vehicle with three friends in the car and hit the young woman at around 3.40am while she was walking home on the roadside with her boyfriend.

Niclas H. was convicted by a court in the German city of Wurzburg and was reportedly fined EUR 5,000 (GBP 4,581) for being too drunk to realise the consequences of his actions, stunning the victim’s family when the sentence was passed in October 2019.

With the help of lawyer Philipp Schulz Merkel, the family launched an appeal.

On the second day of the appeal hearing, a witness who was in the defendant’s car at the time of the incident testified that one occupant asked Niclas H. to intentionally run the couple over.

The prosecution team is now asking for the case to be upgraded to murder, while chief prosecutor Boris Raufeisen confirmed that the regional court issued an arrest warrant to the passenger who made the statement for incitement to kill.

The suspect, identified as Marius H., 22, was arrested last week, while Niclas H. arrested later the same evening for suspected murder, according to news site Bild.

The case continues.

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