death for Iouri Mikhel and Jurijus Kadamovas

[DP]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 691570.htm

LOS ANGELES - A federal jury on Tuesday imposed the death penalty on two men who orchestrated a deadly kidnapping-for-ransom scheme targeting Russian immigrants whose bodies were found in a Northern California reservoir.

Jurors deliberated less than two hours before deciding that Iouri Mikhel, 41, and Jurijus Kadamovas, 40, should die. Last month, the jury convicted both men of three counts of hostage-taking resulting in death and three counts of conspiracy.

"They got what they deserved," said Ruven Umansky, whose son Alexander was among those killed. "It's a relief."

Prosecutors said the two men led a group that sought to amass a fortune by kidnapping affluent Russian immigrants from Los Angeles in late 2001 and early 2002 and extorting money from their families and friends. About $1.2 million was collected in ransom.

The victims were killed regardless of whether the ransoms were paid and some of them were promised by kidnappers they would be freed, prosecutors said. The bodies were tied with weights and dumped in the New Melones Reservoir near Yosemite National Park.

When the verdict was read, Mikhel smirked and shook his head, while Kadamovas showed no reaction as an interpreter translated the verdict for him. Victims' families held hands and some cried out loud.

The death penalty verdict is binding on U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian, who is scheduled to formally sentence the two men on March 12. As in federal death penalty prosecutions, the case will be automatically appealed.

Defense attorney Dale Rubin, who represents Mikhel, called the jury's decision "a revenge verdict."

"It unfortunately took the judge almost as long to read the verdict as jurors took to reach the verdict," Rubin said. "They lost sight of what their job was."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan DeWitt said she did not believe the nine-man, three-woman jury was out for revenge and called the decision "gratifying."

"These were good people who didn't deserve the fate that befell them," DeWitt said of the victims. "We felt a tremendous responsibility to the victims' families."

Those killed were real estate developer Meyer Muscatel; Russian banking mogul George Safiev; Safiev's accountant Rita Pekler; Safiev's business partner Nick Kharabadze; and Alexander Umansky, who owned a car accessory business.

If not for their arrests in February 2002, the group would have continued its plot and planned to scout other victims in Florida, New York and Colorado, authorities argued.

Prosecutors said Kadamovas told one of the henchmen he hoped they would collect as much as $50 million and discard enough bodies until they "were stacked on top of each other" in the reservoir.

DNA belonging to two victims was collected from handcuffs found at Mikhel's home, authorities said. A pair of shoes was later matched to a bloody footprint found at the crime scene, and a recorder used to tape one of the victim's voices turned up at Kadamovas' house.

Jurors also heard during the guilt phase of the trial from three co-conspirators who earlier pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme. Another defendant, Petro Krylov, is scheduled for trial this year.

Defense attorneys argued the accomplices who cut deals with prosecutors for lesser prison sentences were the group's leaders.

Most death penalty cases are tried in state courts but since capital punishment was reinstated in federal courts in 1988 prosecutors have taken to trial more than 120 cases involving nearly 200 defendants, according to the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel.

In cases where juries decided between life in prison and death, 95 were found in favor of life in prison and 51 chose death, the organization found.

Last month, a man convicted of shooting two police detectives in the head became the first person in more than 50 years to receive a death penalty sentence in a federal case in New York.

There are fewer than 50 inmates nationwide on the federal death row in Indiana. Three, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, have been put to death since 2001.

Not all of the victims' families believe the death penalty was the right punishment.

"I'd like to see that the (defendants) family and children spend some time with them so they don't go through a complete loss," said Pekler's sister Katarinna McBride, 34, of Chicago. "I've come to forgive them (the defendants) and I think it's the right thing."