Trial opens for three American teens charged with murder in Germany

Friday, December 1st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DARMSTADT, Germany (AP) _ Three American teen-agers accused of killing two women by throwing heavy stones from a bridge onto a highway went on trial Friday in this German city, where their fathers are based with the U.S. Army.

The teens, who were 14, 17 and 18 at the time of the Feb. 27 attack, entered the juvenile courtroom in Darmstadt with their heads bowed. Two were handcuffed.

The three, whose names were not released, are charged with murder, attempted murder and interfering with traffic. If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors in this city near Frankfurt say the teens hurled stones _ some weighing more than 18 pounds _ from a pedestrian bridge at cars traveling on a busy four-lane highway, near the U.S. Army's Lincoln housing area in Darmstadt where they lived.

A 20-year-old woman and a 41-year-old mother of two were killed when the stones smashed through the windshields of the cars they were driving. A total of six cars were hit, and four other people were injured.

The three teens allegedly took the stones from a nearby schoolyard and agreed to throw them at the cars, hiding behind a screen on the more than 30-foot-high bridge so motorists couldn't see them.

Prosecutors say the youths had previously thrown smaller stones from the pedestrian bridge and were aware that their actions could result in the deaths of others. They have been jailed since the incident, and they were formally charged in May.

The attacks caused widespread dismay on both sides of the Atlantic. While Germans were shocked at the lack of a cause for the violence, the U.S. government and the American military community in Germany have worried that they might jeopardize relations between Germans and the U.S. troops stationed here.

The trial is closed to the public.