The defendant was fleeing from police on Dec. 30, 2018, when he crashed into a stationary vehicle at a highway rest stop, killing the woman and seriously injuring her 10-year-old son. The woman's husband was outside the vehicle when the crash happened.

German courts have only recently begun convicting drivers responsible for fatal crashes of murder. In a landmark case, a Berlin court recently upheld a murder conviction for two men whose drag race ended with a crash that killed another driver.