Commits Another Crime in Prison

A dispute with his prison cellmate has resulted in another charge being added to Andris Javnijs’s criminal record and yet another court case, as a result of which the man will have to spend more time in prison.

The Kurzeme District Court in Liepāja heard this week the criminal case in which A. Javnijs was charged with intentionally inflicting moderately serious bodily injury when committed by a person held in a prison. According to the charges, in October last year, during an argument, A. Javnijs struck another inmate, breaking one of his ribs.

At the beginning of this year, A. Javnijs was transferred to Valmiera Prison, from where he participated in the proceedings by videoconference. He fully admitted the charges in court. “He hit me first, and I hit back. It was simply an unfortunate blow,” the man explained in court.

A. Javnijs has previously been convicted three times—for theft, intentional destruction of and damage to property, and robbery. Last April, the Kurzeme District Court in Talsi sentenced him to ten years’ imprisonment for intentionally inflicting serious bodily injury that, due to the offender’s negligence, resulted in the victim’s death, as well as for inflicting minor bodily injury.

Judging by the judgment available in the database of anonymized rulings, in May 2017 A. Javnijs assaulted three people in Talsi. First, on the evening of 3 May, he punched someone in a car park near “Rimi”; then, on 23 May, he severely beat a man in a shed on K. Valdemāra Street. Two weeks later, the victim died in hospital.

Then, on the evening of 28 May, A. Javnijs severely beat another person in the courtyard of a building on Raiņa Street in Talsi. The second victim also died in hospital several days later.

The personal character references read out at the Kurzeme District Court in Liepāja indicate that A. Javnijs has regularly come into conflict with the law—criminal proceedings had previously been initiated and terminated against him several times, and the man had repeatedly been subject to administrative penalties for minor hooliganism, consuming alcohol in a public place, and inflicting bodily injuries. He himself stated in court that all of this was because of alcohol.

The administration of Liepāja Prison, however, described A. Javnijs relatively positively. Before the incident with his cellmate, he had committed no violations, had been polite and cooperative, and had participated in various activities organized at the prison, such as the “Know and Do” educational project. So far, he has reportedly committed no violations at Valmiera Prison either.

During the court debates, the prosecutor stated that the crime committed by A. Javnijs at Liepāja Prison constituted recidivism, which is an aggravating circumstance. Applying the rules on the cumulative sentencing of criminal offenses and partially adding the sentences together, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence A. Javnijs to ten years and four months’ imprisonment. However, the court ruled that recidivism could not be established in the defendant’s conduct. Consequently, the man will have to spend ten years and one month in prison.

The judgment may still be appealed.

No person is considered guilty until their guilt of committing a criminal offense has been established in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the Criminal Procedure Law.