Life sentences in Vantaa dismemberment murder case

Court rejects self-defence argument

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Two men charged with the murder and dismemberment of two people in the Pähkinärinne district of Vantaa last year were given life sentences by Vantaa District Court. The killings took place in premises owned by the United Brotherhood gang last summer.
      In Novermber the younger defendant, 31-year-old Petri Markus Juhani Mäkinen, took blame for causing the deaths of the victims, but would only admit to excessive self-defence. The court nevertheless also convicted the other defendant, 42-year-old Vesa Juhani Kosonen.
     
The victims had gone to the clubhouse late one night in June. The prosecution said that one of them wanted to celebrate his upcoming release from a life sentence in prison.
      There was drinking, and when the guests refused to leave a fight apparently ensued, resulting in the death of one of the victims.
      Kosonen said that he had been in another room watching television when the killings took place, but the court did not believe that Mäkinen alone would have been capable of killing two men, both of whom were larger than he was.
     
Police said that both Kosonen and Mäkinen had a history of gang activities. Kosonen was believed to have been in a high position in the club hierarchy and Mäkinen was a trainee.
      On the night of the killing there was a fifth man on the scene – the brother of one of the defendants, who testified as a witness at the trial.
      The brother said that he had been asleep in the dressing room of the clubhouse sauna, and was woken up after the killings had taken place. Police said that forensic evidence backed up the brother’s story.
     
The court found that the killings took place in such a brutal fashion that no self-defence argument was credible.
      An aggravating circumstance in the killings was the dismemberment of the bodies with a saw and the hiding of the body parts.
     
Kosonen and Mäkinen were both on parole when the killings took place. In the trial they were also convicted for other actions. For instance, Kosonen was found guilty of a knife attack against Mäkinen, which took place in July.
      The court concluded that the aggravated assault was intended as a message of some kind. The two men did not want to discuss the incident in court.
      Kosonen was also convicted of violently resisting an official when he threw a table at a police officer during interrogation.
     
A third defendant, who was accused of protecting the perpetrator of a crime, was acquitted.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Police establish chain of events related to Vantaa dismemberment murders (21.10.2011)
  Third man apprehended in connection with grisly dismemberment killings in Vantaa (18.8.2011)

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