A fifth person, had been sentenced to 14 years in prison last year in the murder of Christin R., a 21-year-old stable girl from Reinickendorf in northern Berlin.

She had been found strangled to death in a parking lot in June 2012. Shortly after, police uncovered the conspiracy murder plot that started with Christin's ex-boyfriend and his mother.

Courts heard how the mother-son duo had taken out life insurance policies without Christin's knowledge to the tune of €2.4 million and named themselves the beneficiaries. The plan was to then murder Christin and buy a stables for themselves with the money.

However, Christin survived the first two attempts on her life, a stabbing and a poisoning.

The son then told courts that they were carried out by the woman he was having an affair with. He claimed that he was not behind the murder plot because he had been 80 kilometres away at the time of the murder.

The secret lover, though, said that he had told her they could be together if the ex-girlfriend were out of the way, so after failing to poison Christin R., she enlisted the help of her younger brother.

It was the younger brother who found the pizza delivery driver turned killer-for-hire. For €500, he strangled Christin R. in the parking lot of the swimming pool in Lübars, leaving her body to be discovered the next day.

The ex-boyfriend, the mother, the lover and the brother, as well as the killer were arrested the following day after police connected all five of them to one another through mobile phone messages.

Last year, the lover already confessed to her part of the plot, gaining her a reduced sentence in exchange for testifying against her co-conspirators.

In the end, the judge found that the boyfriend and his mother were indeed involved, and in his sentencing, noted that they were the most responsible in Christin R.'s death.  

"A group of unremarkable people who assembled with the treacherous goal of murdering (Christin R.), with an unconditional will to destroy regardless of previous attempts on her life," said Judge Ralph Ehestädt.

In Germany, a life sentence means that at least 15 years must be served in prison before any possibility of parole being granted.