On 30 September 2026, the High Court in Olomouc issued a final confirmation of a 17-year prison sentence for an elderly man from the Jihlava region who shot his nephew dead on a street in Třešť in front of firefighters and police officers called to a fire that the man had himself started in his apartment. The sentence, originally handed down by the Regional Court in Brno, has thus become final. [1][2]*

Course of the crime

The incident occurred in February 2025 in Třešť in the Jihlava region. The previously unconvicted man decided to set fire to his apartment after a quarrel with his sister and her thirty-five-year-old son over a heating payment. He then packed weapons and cash and drove away from the scene, but returned shortly afterward and reported the fire himself by calling the 112 emergency line.[1][2] During the firefighters' and police intervention, he shot his nephew at point-blank range with a loaded revolver, hitting him in the chest in front of the victim's mother; the man died on the spot. According to the court file, the defendant said the words, "Die, you swine; you got what you wanted."[1][2]

Arguments of the defense and the prosecution

The defendant did not deny the act, but the defense sought to have it reclassified as manslaughter, carrying a lower sentencing range, arguing that it was committed in the heat of passion. Defense attorney Pavel Hála described his client as a devastated loner who had long cared for his parents, and called the act "a situational failure of a deeply unhappy man," committed two weeks after the death of the man's mother, when poor family relations also played a role.[1] The defendant himself told the court: "Despair and desperation drove me to a terrible act, I ask for forgiveness, I regret it terribly. It was definitely not planned, I acted in a state of extreme emotional distress."[1]

Prosecutor Jaroslav Kouřil, on the other hand, insisted on a classification of premeditated murder, pointing out that nothing extraordinary had happened just before the shooting that could justify the act. He called the act a public execution and stated that in his career he had never encountered a case where a perpetrator shot someone "like a dog" in front of police and the public.[1][2] According to the prosecution, property disputes within the family following the death of the man's mother also played a role.[2]

Decision of the appellate court

The High Court in Olomouc rejected the argument of acting in the heat of passion and confirmed that the man had committed the murder consciously and with deliberation. Presiding judge Vladislav Šlapák justified the decision by referring to camera footage from the scene, which shows that after the emergency services arrived, the defendant and his relative neither shouted nor argued. "The camera footage shows that they are in verbal contact, then the defendant steps back behind the fire truck, and after a while reaches under his jacket, pulls out a weapon, cocks it, approaches the victim and shoots," Šlapák said, adding that although the man was highly agitated, he committed the act out of revenge and anger.[1][2] The man faced a sentencing range of 12 to 20 years in prison.[3]

In addition to the seventeen-year prison sentence, the convicted man must pay a total of 7.25 million crowns in non-material damages to four surviving relatives.[1][2]

Chronology

Sources

  1. ČTK / České noviny — 30 September 2026
  2. Deník: Vysočina — 30 September 2026
  3. Deník: Olomoucký kraj — 30 September 2026