Supreme Court reduces sentence in Lahti mistaken shooting

Finland’s Supreme Court has reduced the sentence handed to Olli Aleksi Lehto over a fatal shooting in an apartment building stairwell in Lahti, Yle reports. The court replaced his manslaughter conviction with attempted manslaughter and aggravated negligent homicide.

Lehto was also convicted of a firearms offence and endangerment. Including the remainder of an earlier sentence, his prison term is nine years and three months, one year shorter than the sentence imposed by the lower courts.

The crimes took place in the stairwell of an apartment building on Mariankatu in central Lahti during the early hours of a morning in March 2023. Lehto had entered the building carrying a pistol, and a struggle broke out between him and two other men on a landing.

Lehto retreated into the dark stairwell and fired his pistol. He intended to hit one of the men, but the bullet struck the other man, who was farther away, and killed him.

The Supreme Court ruled that the manslaughter charge had to be dismissed because Lehto had not intentionally caused the deceased man’s death. The court noted that his ability to see and perceive events was impaired when he fired: gas had been sprayed into his eyes and the stairwell lights had gone out.

However, the court found that Lehto must have understood that the shot could hit someone other than his intended target. This amounted to aggravated negligent homicide. He must also have understood that hitting the intended target would have resulted in that man’s death, which supported the conviction for attempted manslaughter.

The Supreme Court said that combining attempted manslaughter against one person with aggravated negligent homicide against another through the same act was unusual.