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Evidence given by a policeman who happened to be an involuntary witness to a murder has helped law enforcers to detain and convict the criminals. The officer was patrolling an area in southern Moscow when all of a sudden a dead body fell at his feet. Moments later the murderers came running out of the apartment block. It transpired that they had just stabbed the man and his wife to death and threw the body out of a 10th floor window.
As the Moscow City Court told the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily, 31-year-old driver Yuri Korolkov, 38-year-old entrepreneur Vasily Semakin, and 38-year-old Oleg Bocharov, a manager of the Norilsk ice-hockey team, stood accused of murdering two people. The three friends arrived uninvited at the apartment of the couple at the initiative of Semakin.
The victims moved to Moscow from Ukraine several years ago, and opened a stall at the Luzhniki market. There they got acquainted with Semakin and borrowed $11,000 from him, but failed to repay the debt on time. The creditor decided to take what was his by force and asked his friends for assistance. The man and the wife, however, were not scared of the belligerent trio. What’s more, they said, they had no intention whatsoever of repaying the debt.
The woman attempted to turn the unwanted guests out, and, wielding a nail-file, scratched Semakin’s hand. Outraged, the creditor took a knife out of his pocket and stabbed the offender several times in the chest. The man rushed to help his wife, but Bocharov and Korolkov literally slashed his stomach. Then the assassins grabbed the wounded man and dragged him to the window. The unfortunate wretch clung on to the window-frame and called for help but the criminals eventually managed to push him out of the window.
The policeman inspecting the area heard the screams. As he raised his head the body of a man fell at his feet. Several minutes later three men bolted from the entrance of the house, jumped in their car and fled. The policeman immediately informed other police units of the incident and provided his colleagues with an accurate description of the culprits, and the model and number plates of their car. Shortly afterwards, the murderers’ car was stopped by a police unit. The criminals still had a bloodstained knife with them.
Semakin confessed to murdering two people, but claimed that he did so in a fit of anger. The court, however, ruled that the man would not have fled from the scene of the crime if he had suffered a fit. As for his ''friends'', Bocharov and Korolkov throughout the trial denied their guilt and placed the entire blame on Semakin. The court sentenced all three of them to 9 years in prison.
Moskovsky Komsomolets
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