Kirilik indicted in Oshrenko family homicide

Prosecutors described the crimes as "showing unprecedented cruelty."

By BEN HARTMAN
dimitry and nataliya kirilik (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
dimitry and nataliya kirilik
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Prosecutors indicted Dimitry Kirilik on multiple first-degree homicide charges in the Petah Tikva District Court on Thursday for the murder of six members of the Oshrenko family in Rishon Lezion.
The indictment alleges that last month, Kirilik, 39, brutally murdered Ludmilla and Edward Oshrenko, both 56, their son Dimitry and his wife Tatiana, 32 and 28, and their children Revital, three, and Natanel, three months old, before attempting to set the house ablaze to destroy evidence linking him to the murder.
In the indictment, prosecutors described the crimes as "showing unprecedented cruelty."
Among the more heinous charges, the indictment describes how Kirilik allegedly strangled Natanel Oshrenko before crushing his skull and stabbing him eight times as he lay in his crib.
Kirilik also stands accused of conspiracy, robbery, arson, and breaking and entering.
Kirilik was a former employee at a restaurant owned by the family.
Dimitry Oshrenko publicly dismissed him in 2007 after he was caught on video drinking on the job, police say. Police believe the humiliation of his dismissal, together with his gambling addiction, drove Kirilik to plot the murder and robbery of the Oshrenko family.
Kirilik reenacted the crime for police before making a full confession.
Kirilik was led into the courtroom Thursday along with his wife Natalya, both flanked by prisons service officers. Kirilik, stone-faced and wearing an olive-green tracksuit, refused to answer reporters' questions and did not respond when asked if he felt any remorse for the crimes.
His wife, for her part, kept her face buried in her hands, only once rising to speak to her attorney.
Natalya Kirilik was indicted for manslaughter, destruction of evidence, conspiracy and robbery, for her alleged role in helping her husband plan the robbery and cover up evidence after the murders. She has denied that she knew her husband was planning to murder the Oshrenko family, but has confessed to helping plan the robbery.
Prosecutors and police say she made a copy of the key to the Oshrenkos' residence, having stolen it from their restaurant, where she was still employed after her husband's dismissal.
Natalya Kirilik's court-appointed attorney Avi Cohen said outside the courtroom Thursday that his client had "never dreamed" that her husband was planning on committing a murder and asked the court "to hold her responsible for her own crimes, not those of her husband."
Cohen denied police and prosecution contentions that his client had known her husband had left the house armed with a knife and a container of diesel fuel to set the Oshrenko home on fire. The fact that she was being indicted for manslaughter and not murder, Cohen added, was proof that there was not enough evidence to link her to the massacre.
However, prosecutor Tzahi Uziel told reporters that "through every step of the process" Natalya Kirilik had helped her husband plot and carry out the murder. He cited her purchase of prepaid cellular phones for the couple to use on the night of the murder, and her calling Kirilik ahead of the murder to tell him Edward and Ludmilla Oshrenko had left their restaurant and were on their way to the apartment.
Uziel said Natalya Kirilik had then launched "a military-style operation" throughout Rishon Lezion to cover up evidence linking her husband to the crime, including the murder weapon, which she allegedly buried at a construction site in the city.
Uziel also cited how she had called her husband the day after the murder and told him to attend the funeral of the Oshrenko family to allay suspicions that he had been involved in the crime.
At the time, Dimitry Kirilik was in Taba, Egypt.
Kirilik's 17-year-old daughter was also indicted in a Rishon Lezion juvenile court Thursday for allegedly helping her father cover up the crime.
Kirilik's father, Oleg, was charged with obstruction of justice, as was Natalya's sister Maria, for their role in destroying evidence linking Kirilik to the murders.
Kirilik's mother, Olga, was the only family member to escape indictment.
Kirilik's court-appointed attorney, Uri Keinan, said on Thursday that his client had been kept in terrible conditions and that in spite of the severe nature of the charges against him, there was no justification for keeping him bound to his prison cell bed for the duration of his detention.
The Prisons Service had previously said the measures had been taken because Kirilik posed a threat to himself and police.
Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.