News

A court has recognized the evidence collected by the Saint Petersburg Office of the Investigative Committee sufficient to pass a sentence based on the verdict of the jury over resident of the town of Veliky Novgorod Dmitry Smirnov and resident of Saint Petersburg Daniil Alekseyev. Depending on the role of each one they were found guilty of a murder under Part 2, items “a”, “g” and “j” of Article 105, larceny under Part 2, item “c” of Article 158 and deliberate damage of another’s property under Part 2 of Article 167 of the RF Penal Code.

The court and investigators have revealed that the two men were having alcoholic drinks on 29 June 2015 in a flat on 2^nd Komsomolskaya street and stabbed four victims: a 56-year-old owner of the flat, his 53-year-old wife, their 33-year-old son and a 46-year-old woman. All of the victims died on the scene. The men then stole 3 thousand rubles, set the flat on fire and took off.

Despite the unobvious nature of the crimes, the investigators solved them in the shortest time. The accomplices were detained in a few days in the town of Veliky Novgorod during investigative and search operations. During interrogations the two men confessed to the crimes. However, later they retracted their statements and started shifting the blame on each other. None the less, the psychological contact the investigator had with the men, well-planned tactics of interrogations and confrontations, as well as results of forensic inquiries and a number of other investigative operations allowed establishing the guilt of both of them in the said crimes.

The investigators questioned more than 30 witnesses, ran more than 10 forensic tests, including psychiatric one. According to the expert’s conclusion, the defendants had no mental disorders and at the moment of crime were fully capable of appreciating their actions and manage them.  

The court has sentenced Smirnov and Alekseyev to life imprisonment in a high-security correctional facility. The court also awarded 3 million rubles of damages.