A court has recognized the evidence collected by the Transbaikalian Territory Office of the Investigative Committee sufficient to convict Vitaly Simonov, 34 and Vitaly Tolstokulakov, 38. They were found guilty of murder of four people and membership in a gang (Part 2, items “a” and “g’ of Article 105 and Part 2 of Article 209 of the RF Penal Code). Tolstokulakov was also found guilty of robberies (Part 3, items “a” and “b” of Article 161).
The court and investigators have revealed that in 2004, the defendants were members of the largest in Transbaikalia gang called Osintsevskiye which was established in 1993 in the city of Chita by Igor Osintsev and committed a series of crimes.
In 2004, Simonov and Tolstokulakov gunned down four people – Kalinin, Svanov, Sveshnikov and Botev, members of an opposing gang, in the center of Chita. Additionally, Tolstokulakov together with other members of the gang stole three expensive cars.
Despite considerable difficulties in the investigation related to remoteness of the crimes, their unclear nature and the fact that the accused had taken great pains to plane the crimes, the investigators still managed to get enough evidence against the defendants.
The court has sentenced Simonov to 20 years in prison and Tolstokulakov to 14 years in prison. Both of them are to serve their time in maximum-security correctional facilities.
Osintsev, the organizer of the gang, got 25 years. He is going to serve first 5 years of the sentence in a prison, and the rest in a maximum-security correctional facility. He is also to pay a fine of 1 million rubles and more than 24 million rubles in damages to the victims.
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