David Virgulák

David Virgulák (born 1981), known as The Taxi Killer (Czech: Taxivrah), is a Czech serial killer who murdered three taxi drivers in Prague and the surrounding areas from January to April 2014. He would later be arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for these crimes.

Early life Little is known about Virgulák's life. Born in 1981 in Prague, he was a licensed plumber who developed an addiction to drugs sometime in 2003. According to his own claims, he started taking them because he had no idea what else to spend his money on, experimenting with substances such as meth and heroin. In order to feed his addiction, he would initially spend 6,000 CZK a day, but later switched to using buprenorphine and clonazepam, which cost him only 1,000.

At the time of the murders, Virgulák lived at his mother's house, had no girlfriend, was childless and unemployed since 2003. In order to make a living, he engaged in petty thefts and collecting items from trash cans and bins. He had a criminal record of about twenty theft-related offenses, most of which were related to shoplifting. In October 2003, while shoplifting from a newsagent, he threatened to kill the shop assistant after she attempted to stop him. In February 2014, with the help of his brother Petr, he assaulted a security guard while attempting to steal from a store.

Murders The first murder took place on 30 January 2014. On that day, Virgulák hailed a Honda CR-V taxi in central Prague driven by 42-year-old Petr Sedláček, a father of two. He requested that he be driven to the small village of Luka pod Medníkem. When they arrived there sometime around 8 PM, Virgulák pulled out a gun and fired five shots into the back of Sedláček's head, killing him. He then stole his wallet, phone and two tablets, and then drove the car to the centre of Prague.

On 10 April, at around 11 PM, Virgulák hailed a Škoda Superb taxi on Štěpánská Street, driven by 38-year-old Milan Paris. At the same time, there was also speculation that the killings might be connected to the recent murder of a woman on a tram.

Investigation The police quickly connected the three killings, as the same trace of odour was found in all vehicles, with shell casings from a 6.35mm pistol being found at the crime scenes. However, the perpetrator's motive was not entirely clear, and it was unknown whether there was a single or multiple killers. After the two April murders, all taxi drivers operating in Prague were warned to only take customers who report to the dispatch center in advance. If the customer wanted a ride from Prague to a smaller village, the driver was instructed to drop them off in the center of the village, where there were more people. Some taxi drivers were also required to acquire guns, video cameras or panic buttons.

Arrest Shortly after the final murder, Virgulák was caught shoplifting. Officers noticed that he had one of the murdered taxi drivers' IDs, but at the time, he was still considered only as a possible witness and charged solely with theft. He immediately became the prime suspect, and was finally charged with the murders in May 2015. For unknown reasons, the police did not disclose this fact to the public until November of that year. The evidence included footprints that matched Virgulák's shoes, a pistol found to be in his possession, gunshot residue, the lack of a strong alibi and the wiretaps. The prosecution also considered submitting in evidence Virgulák's diary, as he had recorded several dates and written suspicious things that they believed could be referencing the murders, but it was deemed too vague and ignored. Upon hearing the outcome of his appeal issued by the High Court, he said that "Kajínek's era is over and [his] has begun." This referred to the case of Jiří Kajínek, a life-sentenced prisoner who had recently been pardoned by president Miloš Zeman. In March 2018, he filed a complaint to the Constitutional Court in an attempt to have his sentence commuted.

In December 2018, Virgulák's final appeal was denied by the Constitutional Court, finalizing his life sentence.

In popular culture One episode of Případy 1. oddělení was inspired by the case.