Jehovah's Witness evangelist killed
AFTER HEARING WORD MAN STABS SECTARIAN WITH KNIVES
Moskovskii komsomolets, 31 July 2001
With extreme cynicism and brutality an ex-convict made short work of a female sectarian from the "Jehovah's Witnesses" religious society. He had just been released from prison where he served a term for murder. The Muscovite had invited him to her home to talk about God and after the talk the monster attacked her in the chest with two pairs of knives and plundered the apartment. Recently the Moscow City Court sentenced the murderer.
It has become known to MK that in October 2000 the twenty-nine-year-old Muscovite Sergei Sokolov was released from prison ahead of time on an amnesty and began living with his father in the capital. Two weeks after his release, on 1 November, around eleven in the morning Sokolov met two women near his house on Bolshaia Cherkizovskaia street. The women introduced themselves to Sokolov as evangelists from the "Jehovah's Witnesses" religious society and began a conversation about God. Solokov immediately told them that he recently served a prison term for murder. However the confession did not bother the women at all. Moreover, one of them, forty-nine-year-old Valentina Goncharova, presented the recent convict religious pamphlets and even invited him to visit her at any time if he had questions about the Bible (it seems they lived in the same building). At this the new acquaintances parted. But by noon Sokolov appeared at the apartment of the hospitable sectarian.
Goncharova was home alone; her husband was at work. Over tea the woman talked with the guest about her organization, about the belief in the Trinity, and about the Bible. At approximately three o'clock she interrupted the intense conversation and said that it was time for her to go to the hospital to visit a friend. Sokolov went into the entry and began to put on his coat while the hostess wrote down her phone number for him. But the guest did not plan to leave so quickly. The man suddenly attacked the evangelist with his fists and beat her about the face and neck and kicked her. Goncharova tried to resist and even scratched her attacker's nose and then ran into the kitchen, but Sokolov grabbed her by her skirt and threw her onto the floor. Then he grabbed from the table two pairs of knives and repeatedly plunged them into his victim's chest. After this the sadist stole from a vase on the dresser all the jewelry, five silver necklaces, a pair of gold earrings, and two wedding rings worth a total of 10,600 rubles.
The woman's body was discovered that evening by her husband when he returned from work. He summoned the police and telephoned the friend of his wife, who told the officers about their chance acquaintance with Sokolov. Several days later the murderer was arrested in his father's apartment. The blood of his victim was still on Sokolov's jeans and jacket.
The accused denied his involvement in the crime. Besides murder and robbery the investigation also incriminated Sokolov with attempted rape of the sectarian; the dead woman was found completely nude. However the sex charge was not proven. But even without this the court sentenced Sokolov to 18 years in prison with confiscation of property. (tr. by PDS, posted 1 August 2001)