Appeal court hears Nordmo’s account of Janne Puhakka killing

The Helsinki Court of Appeal is hearing the account of 68-year-old Rolf Nordmo, who was convicted of murdering his former partner, ex-ice hockey player Janne Puhakka. Yle reports that Puhakka’s family plans to question Nordmo closely during Wednesday’s hearing.

The court will first hear Puhakka’s father and sister, after which Nordmo, a Norwegian veterinarian, will give his account of the killing.

The Western Uusimaa District Court sentenced Nordmo to life in prison for murdering the 29-year-old Puhakka in April 2025. Nordmo appealed the verdict.

Nordmo admits causing Puhakka’s death but denies murder. He says he is guilty of manslaughter and acted in a state of agitation caused by prolonged stress.

The appeal court will assess the legal classification of the act and decide whether the life sentence should remain in force. A murder conviction carries a life sentence in Finland, while manslaughter carries a prison term of eight to 12 years. Prosecutors are asking the court to uphold both the murder conviction and the life sentence.

Puhakka was killed in October 2024 at a house in Henttaa, Espoo, where he and Nordmo had lived together before separating.

Nordmo brought the licensed shotgun used in the killing from Norway to Finland on October 7, 2024, one week before the crime. Prosecutors and Puhakka’s family argue that he planned the killing and brought the weapon specifically to use against Puhakka. Nordmo denies this and says he brought the shotgun for a hunting trip.

Puhakka’s family is asking the appeal court to find that the killing was not only carried out in an especially brutal and aggravated manner, but was also carefully considered and particularly cruel.

“The intention now is to get him to explain facts that have remained unclear,” Tuukka Tieksola, a qualified lawyer representing Puhakka’s sister, said at the appeal hearing on Monday.

The family believes the district court placed too much weight on Nordmo’s account, even though he declined to answer many questions.

The district court found that the killing constituted murder because it was carried out in an especially brutal manner and was aggravated when assessed as a whole. According to the judgment, Nordmo shot Puhakka twice with a shotgun and struck him in the head with the gun barrel as many as nine or 10 times, with such force that the barrel broke.

The court found that Puhakka was still alive when the blows were inflicted. It said that continuing the violence against a defenceless victim showed a persistent intention to kill.

The duration and sequence of events could not be reliably established at the district court. As a result, the court rejected particular cruelty as an independent basis for the murder conviction, although it found features linked to particular cruelty in the continued violence against Puhakka after he was already defenceless.

The court also considered that the attack came as a surprise to Puhakka, that the attacker was his former partner and that it took place in their shared home.

The district court said it had not been proven that the killing was carefully considered, leaving a reasonable doubt on that point.

Nordmo has previously said that he remembers shooting Puhakka once and striking him with the gun barrel two or three times. The defence says the incident lasted only a short time and that Puhakka quickly lost consciousness.

The defence argues that the killing was driven by Nordmo’s severe stress, including stress related to the separation and financial difficulties. It says the act did not demonstrate a persistent intention to kill, was not carried out in an especially brutal manner and was not aggravated when assessed as a whole.

The appeal proceedings have been scheduled for five days. The defence and representatives of Puhakka’s family have notified the court of new witnesses.

Yle is following the case because Puhakka was a public figure who had also made his relationship with Nordmo public. The proceedings have also attracted attention because intimate partner violence is a serious problem in Finland and homicide is its most extreme form.