A dispute between a scooterist and a motorcyclist ended in death. Scooter riders face up to 16 years in prison

Forty-six-year-old Jan Navrátil faces a sentence of up to 16 years in prison for choking a 42-year-old motorcyclist during a fight last summer near Příchovice in southern Pilsen. A verbal argument between Navrátil, who was riding a scooter at night, and a man on a motorcycle arose because of a poorly lit scooter. The state attorney charged Navrátil with grievous bodily harm resulting in death and proposes a sentence of 8.5 to nine years in prison. Navrátil admitted the conflict in court and described it in tears. But he claims he was defending himself against a much bigger and stronger biker who attacked him earlier.

The incident happened on the night of July 22 last year, when Navrátil was riding a scooter from Přeštice from a celebration. On the way, according to his statement, he met a motorcyclist on the road, who scolded him because of the unlit scooter. The argument escalated into a physical conflict when the motorcyclist overtook the driving Navrátil and hit him in the back of the head, causing Navrátil to fall into a ditch. This was repeated twice, the public prosecutor described the situation. The two men then got into a fight, during which Navrátil gripped the biker’s neck with his forearm in a so-called tie and held him until he choked him, according to the indictment.

“The first thing I want to say here is that I realize that I have taken a human life. I wrote a letter to the victim’s family explaining that for me life is at the top of my list of values. I don’t know how this happened in my life,” Navrátil said in his statement. In tears, he then described last year’s event. On the bench behind him sat the siblings of the dead motorcyclist, who together with the deceased’s parents are demanding a total of 4.37 million crowns in compensation.

According to Navrátil, he left the celebration in Přeštice in a good mood because he had a great day and was looking forward to going home. It is about two kilometers to Příchovice. “When I got on the road, a motorcyclist came up to me at the intersection and began to call me psychopathically all sorts of names, that I was unlit, what was I doing on the road. It was the outpouring of a man who was full of hatred. I cursed him back and rode off on a kick scooter. I thought the situation was resolved, but he hit me in the back of the head, I lost consciousness for a few seconds, I fell into a ditch. I stood up and thought that that was the end of it,” Navrátil described the situation.

According to him, however, the motorcyclist stopped in the middle of the road, waited and continued to curse at him. Navrátil allegedly tried to run away, but the motorcyclist again caught up with him and again hit him even harder on the back of the head. “I flew headfirst into a ditch. He stopped and waited right next to the ditch. When I climbed out, I knew the only chance was to get him off the bike,” he told the court.

He described how the two subsequently started to fight, but he does not remember the exact course of the fight. At one point he got under the biker and grabbed him around the arms. He is allegedly unaware that he has his arms around his neck. Because of the man’s aggression, he was convinced that the motorcyclist was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. “It was a coincidence that I pacified him, I’m weaker, I was afraid of him. He was 190 centimeters and 110 kilos,” said Navrátil. He released the man after a while, and when he got out from under him, he said he heard him snoring, so he thought he had fallen asleep while drunk. He told the two girls who stopped at the incident that the man had assaulted him.

Navrátil then removed the motorcycle from the road because it was leaking gasoline and drove home. He drank two beers. He did not want to get into trouble with the police, the defendant said. The police arrested him shortly after the incident. The trial will continue with the questioning of witnesses in June.