Trial opens for three American teens charged with murder in Germany

DARMSTADT, Germany - Heads bowed and hands folded, three American teens listened Friday as a German prosecutor read the charges against them: the sons of U.S. soldiers killed two women and injured four other people by heaving heavy stones from a pedestrian overpass onto the highway below.

Even as the murder trial opened, the February attacks reverberated through the military community in Darmstadt, where people can only shake their heads in sorrow and bewilderment.

''Lighting the Christmas tree will be a little bit sadder this year with the knowledge that people lost their lives,'' said Laura Davis, program manager for youth services on the base, where holiday festivities began Friday. ''It makes everything sadder.''

The teens, who were 14, 17 and 18 at the time of the Feb. 27 attack and are being tried as juveniles, calmly entered the courtroom early Friday in Darmstadt. As they took their places, police removed their handcuffs, which seemed absurdly large on their thin wrists.

They sat at a long U-shaped table in the courtroom as prosecutor Manfred Vogel read the charges: two counts of murder, four counts of attempted murder and interfering with traffic. If convicted, each teen could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Opposite one of the boys, Hans-Joachim Ottmann, whose 20-year-old daughter, Sandra, was killed instantly when a stone crashed through the windshield of her BMW, stared coldly at their bowed heads. The teens didn't look up.

''I want to see the attackers - not just see them, but hear what their motives were,'' Ottmann told reporters before the trial began.

The defense is also searching for motives, said Ulrich Enders, a lawyer for one of the teens. No formal pleas were entered Friday, but because the three confessed to police they threw the stones - some weighing more than 18 pounds - Enders said the question is: why?

''What is at issue is the degree of guilt,'' he said. ''The fact (they threw the stones) is there. The question is what went through their heads and how do you punish that?''

In the Lincoln Village residential area in Darmstadt, people are also asking what drove the boys to climb atop the more than 6-foot-high Plexiglas wall along the pedestrian bridge to throw stones at the traffic cruising on the highway below.

According to the charges, the youths first dropped small stones and a metal snow-shovel onto the highway. Even after they had damaged several cars, Vogel said, the boys went back for larger stones and rained them down.

A total of six cars were hit, injuring four and killing Ottmann and a 41-year-old mother of two whom officials identified only as Karin R.

Davis, who organizes activities ranging from sports and cultural trips to a teen center with three personal computers and a pool for the U.S. base's roughly 1,200 youths, said new funding had recently been provided to beef up programs for teen-agers, identified as those who most need guidance and support.

''With that age group, you can either make or break it,'' she said. ''But you can never know when they are going to make a bad choice.''

Counseling and support services aimed at the boys' classmates or family were also offered at the time of the attack and again during the trial.

The three teens have been in a German prison since February and were formally charged in May.

After the charges were read Friday, Judge Bertram Schmitt ordered the trial closed to the public to shield the young defendants from publicity. The trial continues Wednesday.

Despite the loss of lives, American officials in Darmstadt insist the incident has brought their base closer to the German community.

Maj. Chris Franks, 37, an operations officer with the 233rd Army Base Support Battalion, pointed out it was the seemingly motiveless element of the attack that made it so binding.

''This is a tragedy within the community - German and American,'' he said. ''It was a random act of violence and we are saddened by the loss. It could have just as easily been Americans in those cars.''