The Higher Court in Podgorica, in a repeated trial, sentenced Milan Andrijašević from Nikšić to 40 years in prison for the murder of fellow citizen Marko Gardašević on May 20, 2020, in his home.
The first-instance verdict was pronounced by Judge Igor Đuričković.
According to the indictment, on May 20, at around 5.30:20 a.m. in the Rastoci settlement, Andrijašević brutally and intentionally killed Marko Gardašević by coming to the victim's family home and striking him several times with the blunt and sharp part of an axe on the head and body, causing him around XNUMX bodily injuries. In addition to the axe, Andrijašević also used a knife in the attack on Gardašević, stabbing him twice in the stomach and neck.
When Gardašević died from his injuries, the accused covered his head with a pillow, locked the door and left the house.
The autopsy report showed that Gardašević died from a fractured skull and damage to important brain centers due to bleeding from a severed jugular vein. Experts determined that Gardašević suffered severe and prolonged physical and mental pain during the beatings and stab wounds.
Witness Borislav Gardašević, the father of the late Marko, stated at the trial that he told his son several times to stay away from Andrijašević.
"Marko has calmed down, he was supposed to get married. I saw him the night before the murder, he came to our house every morning," said Gardašević. He stated that on May 20, one of Marko's friends came and found him not at home, which they found suspicious. "He came in through the window and started crying...", stated, among other things, the father of the late Gardašević.
The fact that the front door was not broken into led to the conclusion that the victim knew the killer well, which narrowed down the circle of people who could have committed this crime for investigators. The killer's identity was revealed by analyzing video footage from surveillance cameras that recorded Gardašević driving an Opel Corsa to Marko Gardašević's house at dawn and entering.
In May last year, the Court of Appeal of Montenegro overturned the verdict sentencing Milan Andrijašević to 40 years in prison for the murder of fellow citizen Marko Gardašević. The judges of the second-instance court ordered a retrial in the case after determining that the first-instance verdict provided unclear reasons for qualifying the murder as a brutal act.
"For this form of the criminal offense of murder to exist, it is necessary that the actions taken are objectively cruel and horrific, and that the victim is in a conscious state, so that he experiences and suffers their cruelty, with great pain, fear and suffering, while it is necessary that the perpetrator of the act be aware of the cruel and inhuman acts that he voluntarily undertakes, which was not the case in this specific case," the explanatory statement of the annulment decision states.
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