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- For daughters and mother: the blower of a five-storey building in Stupino will be sentenced to life imprisonment
For daughters and mother: the blower of a five-storey building in Stupino will be sentenced to life imprisonment
November 29, Moscow Municipal Court announced the verdict of the defendant in the case of blowing up a five-story building in Stupino near Moscow in April 2022. According to the prosecution's version, Alexei Zarubin, a resident of the building, deliberately blew up the apartment with domestic gas after a quarrel with his wife. The house collapsed from the fifth to the second floor, six people died, including the defendant's wife and his two children. The defendant did not admit guilt. His lawyer told "Izvestia" that will appeal the court decision. Details of the case - in the material "Izvestia".
How was the explosion of the house in Stupino
The defendant in the case of the explosion of a five-story building in Stupino near Moscow was sentenced to life imprisonment - this decision was made on November 29 by the Moscow Regional Court.
A domestic gas explosion, which killed six people, including three children, occurred inApril 2022 in one of the residential five-story buildings in Stupino. The defendant in the case became a resident of this house Alexei Zarubin. According to the version of the investigation, he created the conditions for the explosion intentionally, being under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
Investigators believe that on the eve of the tragedy he quarreled with his wife, and when she fell asleep, blocked the hood in the kitchen with a child's blanket, opened all the taps on the gas stove, then flicked a lighter and provoked an explosion. As a result, Zarubin's two daughters, aged six and 11, his wife Olesya and three neighbors died.
In total, the victims were about 20 people, it follows from the case materials.
Alexei Zarubin was charged with the murder of two or more persons, committed in a generally dangerous way, as well as attempted murder, Daria Alenko, a prosecutor of the department of state prosecutors of the criminal and judicial department of the Moscow region prosecutor's office, told Izvestia. In addition, the indictment included willful damage and destruction of property, causing significant damage and grave consequences. The amount of damage caused to the residents amounted to 630 million rubles.
- As a result of his actions, the residents of the house also suffered bodily injuries of varying degrees of severity," said the prosecutor. - People were deprived of their homes for a long time and forced to live elsewhere.
At the debate of the parties on November 29 and earlier during the investigation, the defendant denied his guilt and tried to convince the court that the causes of the explosion were unknown to him. Among the versions that he voiced were a gas stove with a faulty burner and insects, which he allegedly poisoned shortly before the tragedy, because of which he plugged the hood in the kitchen with a blanket. According to the defendant, he forgot to take the blanket out later, which he repented of.
According to his version, that night he woke up at about five o'clock in the morning and went to the toilet to smoke. There he was allegedly caught by the explosion. He denied his quarrel with his wife at first, but during the interrogation at the trial he admitted: "We quarreled with my wife because of her drug use, I told her that it was necessary to give them up, because we have children growing up".
Arguments of Zarubin's defense
During the last session in Mosoblastsud, the sister of the deceased spouse of the defendant told the court that she did not believe in his guilt. According to her, Zarubin was never seen in cruelty towards his spouse, he did not have jealousy attacks against her either.
"I won't say that Alexei could have done it intentionally," the victim stated. - He was sitting with the children in maternity leave, doing crafts with them, lessons. He would never hurt his children. I don't think he is guilty."
During her testimony, the woman was crying, the defendant at her words also did not restrain emotions - he also began to cry.
Zarubin's lawyer Igor Litvinenko asked the court to acquit his client due to his innocence and to dismiss the claims of the victims.
"Why on earth should Zarubin pay for damages if he is innocent? - He said. - There is no evidence from witnesses, victims, rescuers that Zarubin did it."
According to the lawyer, his client did not attempt to kill the neighbors, as he "did not even know them." Also, the lawyer believes, there is no evidence in the case that the gas stove, which appears in the case, was from the defendant's apartment.
- "There is only a photo of the stove in the case, which was found on the street after the explosion," the lawyer told Izvestia on the eve of the trial. - But there is another photo, in which Zarubin's wife is standing in the kitchen right next to the stove. And there you can see that it's not the stove at all, which then got into the case. The floors went from the fifth to the third. It could have been any other stove from other apartments.
The lawyer added: Zarubin could not prove these facts, because he did not participate in the inspection of the scene. After the hospital he was immediately placed in the pre-trial detention center.
Experts involved in the investigation noted that the blanket, which was used to cover the ventilation, could not have been there for more than two days - otherwise it would have shrunk, stuck together, its surface would have started to rot and become covered with mold due to moisture.
But Igor Litvinenko doubted these conclusions.
"From my life experience, the blanket looked like it had been in the ventilation for a long time, there were grease drips ," the lawyer said. - To produce such an explosion, Zarubin would have had to take his hand out and set it on fire, but the burns are on his back for some reason."
The lawyer also drew the court's attention to the testimony of Zarubin's mother: according to her, the defendant "had normal relations in the family, he was always with the children."
However, according to the prosecution, the defense version is refuted by the results of the expert examination, the protocol of the inspection of the scene of the incident and the testimony of witnesses.
Indeed, the experts who conducted the expert examination were inclined to the version with an intentional explosion. In their conclusion they noted: all four burners on the gas stove were open, while the windows and the ventilation channel in the kitchen, on the contrary, were closed, which led to a rapid accumulation of gas to an explosive concentration. In their opinion, gas concentrations between 4-17% (which is what causes an explosion) are impossible not to feel. This was in contradiction with the testimony of Zarubin, who claimed that he did not smell the odor and decided to smoke.
As the prosecutor stated in court, Zarubin made the explosion purposefully. At that moment he was not in a state of affect and realized his actions. The expert examination also established Zarubin's syndrome of dependence on psychoactive substances. The fact that Zarubin regularly abused alcohol and drugs was confirmed by his neighbors during interrogations.
The prosecutor requested life imprisonment for Zarubin.
"Zarubin's actions bear exceptional cynicism. He is a special danger to society," the prosecution spokeswoman said.
The court handed down the sentence the same day.
In addition to the life sentence, the court ruled to satisfy the civil claim of one of the victims against Zarubin for 1 million rubles. The other 66 victims refused compensation - they believe that they can't get anything from a man who has no savings and property. The court also decided to recover from Zarubin 227 million rubles in favor of the administration of Stupino and 134 million rubles - in favor of the Fund of capital repair of the Moscow region. It was this organization that was engaged in the restoration of apartments. The money on this suit will be deducted from Zarubin's salary, if he, while in prison, will work and receive at least some income.
Zarubin's lawyer told Izvestia that he will appeal the sentence.
Why the court handed down a life sentence for the gas explosion in Stupino
Thelife sentence indicates that the court fully agreed with the prosecution's position and considered that the evidence presented was sufficient to impose such a sentence, said Konstantin Trapaidze, chairman of the Vash Legal Advocate Bar Association. However, he added, questions remain in the circumstances set forth in the case.
- According to the expert's conclusion, the concentration of gas sufficient to cause an explosion should have accumulated in the apartment for quite a long time," the lawyer said. - Another question is whether the defendant knew about it. If he did, it can be assumed that he wanted to settle accounts with his life as well. Such questions, in my opinion, should be resolved by psychiatrists. I think that the appeal and cassation instances, if the decision is challenged, will appoint an additional expert examination to minimize the probability of error.
There are several grounds on which a higher court can overturn or modify a verdict, Ilya Drozdov of the law firm Makeev and Partners explained to Izvestia.
- This is possible, for example, if it determines that the conclusions of the first-instance court do not correspond to the actual circumstances of the criminal case," the lawyer gave an example. - Or if gross procedural violations were committed during sentencing or the court misapplied criminal law.
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As a rule, convicts expect that higher courts will consider the punishment, to which they were sentenced by the court of first instance, as excessively severe, Ilya Drozdov added.
- But statistics show that convictions in most cases remain unchanged," he said.
If the appellate court has no doubts about Zarubin's guilt on all the imputed episodes, it will have no grounds for mitigation of the sentence.
