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Legal
Verdict in Lamb Of God manslaughter case likely today
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 5 March 2013
A verdict in Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe’s manslaughter case is likely to be reached today, the judge overseeing the trial, Tomas Kubovec, said yesterday.
As previously reported, Blythe is accused of pushing a teenager, now named as Daniel Nosek, off the stage at a Lamb Of God show in Prague in 2010, causing Nosek to sustain head injuries in the fall that subsequently led to his death. The trial began in the Czech capital last month but was postponed after a key witness fell ill.
Proceedings began again yesterday, with four witnesses giving testimony – two mental health professionals, as well as two people who attended the concert where Nosek was injured.
According to WTVR, court-appointed criminal psychologist Tereza Soukupova said that under testing Blythe had shown difficulties controlling his emotions and did not take enough responsibility for his actions, citing fines for speeding and urinating in public when he was younger as examples.
But criminal psychiatrist Alena Gayova, appointed by the defence, disagreed with this, saying that Blythe was not “overly aggressive”, even while in prison last year when a heightened emotional state might have been understandable.
Meanwhile, eyewitness Anna Rozsivalova, who had been ill when previously called to testify, told the court how she had been standing near the front of the stage at the show where Nosek fell. She recalled seeing Nosek attempt to climb the barrier to get onto the stage, and then seeing Blythe lift him by the shoulders and push him away with two hands. Nosek, she said, then fell backwards onto the floor as people moved out of the way to avoid being hit by him.
The second eyewitness, Jan Cernansky, was a security guard working on the door at the venue the night of the incident. He had not seen the fall, but said that he had seen Nosek walking out of the venue with two people, one of whom told him that their friend had fallen from the stage and needed some fresh air. An ambulance arrived five to ten minutes later, he said.
A final defence witness, a biomechanics expert, is due to appear in court today to describe how Nosek may have fallen. Once this testimony has been given, Judge Kubovec reckons, it is “likely” that a verdict will be reached by the three judge panel overseeing the case within the day.
