By JPOST.COM STAFF
Following a plea bargain, the Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Tuesday morning convicted Regina Kruchkov of killing her four-year-old son Michael.
She is expected to receive a 12-month prison sentence, pending approval by the court.
Kruchkov, 31, was arrested in September 2008 after calling emergency services and telling the operator that she had killed her son. The call was traced to a south Tel Aviv address, and paramedics found the body of four-year-old Michael on a bed in the woman's apartment.
In accordance with the deal, Kruchkov pleaded guilty to killing the boy by drowning him in a tub.
Throughout the legal proceedings, Kruchkov did not offer a motive for her deed, instead reacting with fear, shock and regret when confronted with the allegations against her. The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court and the Tel Aviv District Court were for months at odds over whether she was mentally fit to stand trial.
"It was a cruel murder, committed in cold blood and apparently without a motive," stated the charge sheet.
Since emigrating from the former Soviet Union, Kruchkov had lived with her bedridden mother, younger brother Vitaly - an IDF combat soldier - and young Michael, whose biological father was unlisted, in the small apartment near Tel Aviv's central bus station.
"I tried to ask her why... She won't answer," Vitaly had told Channel 10 following the killing. "It started after she broke up with her boyfriend, Michael's father, and deteriorated until she was constantly depressed and barely communicating," he said.
"However, there is a grave difference between depression and what she did."
Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.
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