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16. 07. 09. - 12:00

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16. 07. 09. - 12:00

CSI stalker´s jail term reduced

By Thomas Hochwarter

An appeal court has lowered the jail term for the Austrian woman who threatened to kill Hollywood actor David Caruso.

The court in Innsbruck, Tyrol, yesterday (Weds) ruled Heidemarie Schnitzer, 42, will only have to serve five months instead of the seven months she was sentenced to in April after her lawyer Andreas Grabenweger appealed the verdict.

The longest-possible sentence under Austria’s recently introduced anti-stalking law would have been three years.

The family mum will be sent to an institution for mentally ill criminals after serving her jail term.

Judge Erich Wieder said: "The length of the sentence was exaggerated."

He added the woman had partly admitted her crimes.

Karin Treichl, the court’s psychiatric expert, warned it is "very likely" that the woman "could commit more similar crimes" since she was suffering from "a severe personality disorder."

Schnitzer failed to turn up for court proceedings last year and fled to North America. This March, she was extradited to Austria by Mexican authorities after cops discovered her during a routine traffic check near the city of Tijuana.

She sent more than 100 harrowing letters to David Caruso, star of TV crime series "CSI: Miami", in which she threatened to kill the 53-year-old actor, saying: "I’m going to kill you and your butt-ugly Latina whore … that fat-assed bimbo."

Schnitzer had started stalking Caruso and then made the death threats after an unacknowledged request for the actor’s autograph.

She controversially told magazine News shortly before her trial: "I expect a light sentence because in the end nothing happened. I have learned my lesson."

Austrian Times

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