Prison sentences finalized in murder case of seven-year-old Justīne

Latvia's Supreme Court has reviewed cassation appeals filed by defense lawyers in the murder case of seven-year-old Justīne Reinikova and found the lower courts' conclusions to be justified. As a result, the Latgale Regional Court's ruling has taken legal effect: the girl's father, Vladimirs Reinikovs, was sentenced to 23 years in prison, and her stepmother, Sandra Reinikova, to 20 years.

The Supreme Court explained that Justīne, due to her young age, was in a helpless state, and both defendants were aware of this. The court found that the parents' joint actions constituted conscious participation in taking the child's life, establishing indirect intent regarding her death and a causal link between their combined actions and the fatal outcome. Judges emphasized that it was not decisive whether each defendant's individual actions alone would have caused death — what mattered was the combined conduct of both perpetrators and its consequences.

Case history in lower courts

The court of first instance initially sentenced the father to 20 years and the stepmother to 17 years. After the prosecutor filed an appeal seeking harsher punishment, the appellate court increased both sentences. The prosecution expressed satisfaction that the court had taken its arguments into account. The appellate court also ruled that the father's actions should be classified not as a continuation of a single offense, but as two separate crimes of cruelty toward a minor.

Circumstances of the crime

According to the charges, both parents, while intoxicated, argued at their home in Rēzekne municipality over difficulties raising and caring for the girl. Aware that young Justīne could not physically resist, they began shouting at and striking her, causing severe injuries that led to her death. Afterward, they hid the girl's body in the basement of an abandoned house and misled both police and the public about her disappearance.

Justīne's disappearance from Rogovka in Rēzekne municipality's Nautrēni parish was reported on May 5, 2023, triggering an extensive search involving significant resources. Her father and stepmother were later detained as suspects, and the girl's body, showing visible injuries, was found buried in the basement of an abandoned house in a forest, dozens of kilometers from her home.