News

A court has recognized the evidence collected by the Volgograd Region office of the Investigative Committee sufficient to convict Gritory Popov, Dmitry Kondereshko, Ivan Kozhakin and Denis Zimin. Depending on the role of each one they were found guilty of cimres under Part 2, item “h’ of Article 105 (robbery-related murder), Part 4, items “b” and “c” of Article 162 (robbery committed on a large scale and causing grievous bodily harm to a the victim), Part 2, item “a” of Article 166 (car theft committed by a group of people in conspiracy), Part 1 of Article 167 (destruction of another’s property), Part 1 of Article 222 (illegal circulation of firearms) and part 2 of Article 162 of the RF Penal Code (robbery committed by a group of people in conspiracy).

The court and investigators have revealed that the accused and their friend Ziminal had been planning to rob a member of Kalach District Duma who also was the head of a farm for a long time. On the night of 10 December 2014, the perpetrators thinking that the man had on himself 1 million rubles from which he was going to pay wages to his subordinates ambushed hem in a garage and beat him with a metallic bat on the head and other parts of the body. Having made sure that the deputy had no money on him they took him to a wasteland and tortured to find out the PIN code for his bank card and get some money from him. The injures the man sustained were too severe and he died on the wasteland, whole the perpetrators took off.

The body was found the same day by law-enforcers, who had set up a search party following the request of the victim’s wife. She had told the police that her husband had gone to put his car in the garage some 100 meters away from the house at about 9:30 PM, but had never come back. The woman then went to find her husband and saw traces of blood in the open garage, but there were neither the car nor her husband inside.

It took investigators and operatives of the regional police department 11 days to solve the crime and identify the guilty ones. During a search in the residence of one of the accused they found a gas pistol refitted to fire live cartridges.

In addition, the investigators established another crime committed by Popov and Kondereshko who had robbed the wife of a federal judge in May 2014.

Evidence acquired during the probe, including results of forensic examinations, such as a DNA test and confessions made by Popov and Zimin confirm the guilt of the accused. The latter concluded a plea deal and the case against him was severed to form a separate lawsuit.

The court has sentenced all the accused to be confined to a maximum-security correctional facility. Popov will spend there 19 years, Kozhakin 13.5 years, Kondereshko 12 years and Zimin 9.5 years. The state prosecution was supported by the Volgograd Region Prosecutor’s Office.