Conviction final in murder case of seven-year-old Justīne — father gets 23 years, stepmother 20

Latvia's Supreme Court has rejected cassation appeals filed by defense lawyers for Vladimirs Reinikovs and Sandra Reinikova, the father and stepmother of seven-year-old Justīne Reinikova, making the Latgale Regional Court's guilty verdict final. The father was sentenced to 23 years in prison and the stepmother to 20 years.

The Supreme Court found the lower courts' conclusions about the defendants' actions and the legal classification of the crime to be justified. It emphasized that Justīne, due to her age, was in a helpless state, which both defendants were aware of, and that their joint actions amounted to conscious participation in taking a life, with indirect intent regarding the resulting death. The court noted it was not decisive whether each defendant's individual injuries alone would have caused death — causation must be assessed based on the combined actions of both perpetrators and the outcome.

Sentence increased on appeal

The court of first instance had initially sentenced Vladimirs Reinikovs to 20 years and Sandra Reinikova to 17 years. Prosecutors filed an appeal protest seeking harsher sentences, and the appellate court increased them. Prosecutor Natālija Groma expressed satisfaction that the court had taken the prosecution's arguments into account. The regional court also ruled that the father's actions should be classified not as a continuation of a single offense but as two separate crimes under the article on cruelty toward a minor.

Circumstances of the case

While under the influence of alcohol, the two defendants got into a conflict over disagreements about raising and caring for the girl, then began shouting at Justīne and striking her body and head, inflicting severe injuries that caused her death. They subsequently hid the girl's body in the basement of an abandoned house and misled police and the public about her disappearance.

Justīne's disappearance in Rogovka, Nautrēni parish, Rēzekne municipality, was reported on May 5, 2023. After extensive search efforts, her father and stepmother were detained, and her body was found buried in a basement in a forest, at a location where the father had previously lived.