After the first weekend of the trial, two policemen were shot in the line of duty while making a traffic stop. One of those policemen was a young man named Russel Timoshenko. It was mayhem around the courthouse due to the media attention on this case. Most of the reporters watching our trial went M.I.A for a few days. In the mornings we passed television crews set up outside. Most of the news stories centered on Timoshenko, his journey from Belarus to America and eventually his job with the NYPD. Since we were not allowed to discuss our case, this incident drew a lot discussion in the jury room. This was a young man with the approximate same background as the men on our trial. I wondered what kind of experiences or mindset led one man to law enforcement and the others to crime. At the time, Timoshenko was still alive and on life support. He passed away a few days later. As I was returning home from court the next week, a police escort passed my neighborhood for his funeral.
We received more information regarding Roitman's last day from his girlfriend at the time. Apparently no one warned her that the court air conditioning was set permanently to extra frosty so she was dressed in summer wear. During most of her time on the witness stand, she sat hunched over and trembling. The bailiff (one of our regular jury room visitors) asked her name and she stated it for the record. After some introductory questions, she was asked to identify Vitaly Ivanitsky and Marat Krivoi. She had no problem identifying Ivanitsky. She pointed to him and Vitaly gave her a friendly glance. But she absolutely refused to look Marat Krivoi in the eye. Her head dropped down, she shrugged and told the court that she couldn't be sure that the man in front of her was Krivoi. She said she never knew him that well. The prosecution prodded her a bit more but she was adamant in her refusal to definitively identify him. As I watched her keep her head down, I glanced over at Krivoi. He was watching her with curiosity, seemed thoughtful but he didn't have that intimidating stare he frequently directed at Sarkisov. But she was terrified of him. Prosecutor Blank didn't push her on that question and she relaxed a bit.
She told the court how she met Boris Roitman and how long they were together. The testimony covered the same ground leading up to the murder. On that particular day, Boris Roitman spent many hours at the beach with his close friends. They planned to meet again later that night but these plans were interrupted by Marat Krivoi. Roitman's girlfriend stated that she was present when Boris received this call. It upset him and after the phone conversation finished she stated that Roitman tore through his apartment in a frenzy. She told us that he kept muttering, "Why is he doing this to me?" and other phrases in the same vein. Roitman dressed for that night in all dark or black clothing. This included a jacket and baseball cap. His girlfriend told him that it was way too hot to be dressed in that way. After some prodding, Roitman changed his clothing to lighter summer wear. He was still extremely nervous. She told us that he requested to be driven to the area where they usually gathered, a boardwalk in Sheepshead Bay. When she stopped for a red light, Roitman jumped out of the car, told her to wait for him and then disappeared. After waiting for awhile, she began to drive around looking for him. She met up with another friend of his who was also looking for Boris. He had picked up Roitman a few blocks away from where Roitman had left his girlfriend. This friend had told the court in previous testimony that he drove Roitman to a nearby restaurant and they both waited for Marat Krivoi. When Krivoi pulled up in his car, Roitman got of his friend's car and walked to Krivoi's vehicle. They spoke for awhile then Roitman told his friend that he would be leaving with Krivoi but that he should wait for him. It was after this event that Roitman's girlfriend appeared and they decided to wait for Roitman to return together. They waited for quite some time before leaving for the night.
That was the bulk of her testimony. The rest included background information on her relationship with Roitman. The ever present spector of drugs came up again as well. It was a rampant problem in that group. She identified the other friends in Roitman's group by photographs, including Pyotr Sarkisov. It was Ivanitsky and Sarkisov that she knew best from this crowd. She told the court that they were nice guys. Sarkisov was especially so. That fact made me physically ill to hear it. The thought of Sarkisov going out of his way to befriend Roitman's girlfriend after the murder was just horrible. Roitman's girlfriend continued to travel with the same crowd, which included Sarkisov and Ivanitsky, for many years. It was chilling to think that they smiled to her face day in and day out all the while knowing what happened to Boris. Women had no place in that world except as ornaments. Ornaments that were plentiful, disposable and abusable.
After Roitman's girlfriend left the stand, the court was introduced to a former friend of Marat Krivoi. He was somewhat shaky on the stand. This was largely due to the fact that he had his own trial coming up in a few months. His lawyer sat as close to the front of the courtroom and as near to his client as possible. Many times during the testimony the man would pause and nervously seek guidance from his attorney. I also noticed that this former friend was also frightened of Krivoi. He carefully avoided making eye contact with Marat even when asked to identify him and Ivanitsky. It was this friend who sold Krivoi the shotgun used in the Roitman murder. We received personal information from the witness about his place in Krivoi's circle of associates. He identified Sarkisov through a photo. This photo was a police headshot, the numbers and info were covered. He displayed his best nose-in-the-air expression of affronted superiority for the police photographer to immortalize. They must have picked Sarkisov up at an inopportune moment for him because he was dressed in a tacky black Fila tracksuit. The awfulness of the tracksuit filled me with spiteful glee. Then I goofily wondered if Krivoi was the type who wears tracksuits.
The testimony began right away with an account of a recent visit the witness received from Krivoi's brother. The witness was nervous discussing the incident and he frequently looked at his attorney. I wondered what this visit tried to accomplish. It certainly didn't help Krivoi's defense and if anything, it put Ivanitsky in a perilous spot as well. There was a change in the testimony regarding which brother the witness sold his shotgun to that year. Besides that visit, we heard how well the witness knew Krivoi. He was part of the same crowd but not in the inner circle. We were treated to stories about Marat Krivoi's numerous girlfriends of the moment. Mainly how little patience he had for them. The prosecution highlighted an incident in which one hapless girl decided to ride in a car that Krivoi deemed unworthy. He showed his displeasure by taking out his gun and shooting up the car she sat in. This disturbed me enormously, mainly that she had no help. She was alone even in the crowd. I wondered if Ivanitsky or even Sarkisov made any attempt to defend her. But probably not. All those boys were probably happy that Krivoi had someone else to vent his frequent temper tantrums on. There were also hints of even more arguments with other women. However this tumultuous personality never seemed to hurt Krivoi in the romance department. He was never at a loss for companionship.
The witness stated that he liked hunting and this was the reason why he purchased a shotgun. He told the court that he hunted a few times upstate but then eventually lost interest. That was when he decided to sell his weapon. Krivoi expressed interest in buying it and his brother was also involved. During this time, Krivoi had a break up with his most recent girlfriend. The witness stated that he tried to impress Krivoi by exacting a revenge by proxy on her. At a party, the witness stated that he got the former girlfriend intoxicated then molested her as a joke. This was all saved on videotape. I felt the gorge rise up in my throat and that sickly disconnected feeling returned. I was outraged for her, frightened for this unknown girl. She was used, thrown away then deemed available for anyone to attack. But there was worse yet to hear. The witness stated that when Krivoi came to his home to pick up the shotgun, he played the videotape for him. When asked what Krivoi's reaction was, the witness stated that he laughed. I immediately looked at Krivoi sitting at the Defense table. He only raised his eyebrows a bit, lifted one shoulder slightly but he remained nonchalant about it all. Something broke inside of me at that moment. Granted the sadness had been building but it was this account that hurt me most of all. The witness stated that Krivoi called him later, told him that his shotgun was a lemon and not worth the money that was paid for it.
I was numb when I traveled home after the court day ended. At home I turned on my computer to check email and write to online friends. But nothing I did stopped that awful sick feeling inside. Then it all rushed at me, the murder photos, Roitman's mother sitting in the back of the courtroom day after day, Roitman terrified at the prospect of meeting Krivoi that night, all those happy,smiley photos of Krivoi's group which included the ever angry Sarkisov, Roitman's girlfriend wandering like a ghost amongst them, the voiceless victims who were robbed and extorted, and the abused, nameless girlfriends. It all built up and I couldn't ignore it anymore. I started to cry and it went on until it reached a kind of hysteria. I crawled into bed and forced myself to sleep.Labels: court, jury duty