SACRAMENTO—Following two days of deliberation, a Sacramento jury has found Grigoriy Bukhantsov fit to stand trial for the 2012 murders of his sister-in-law and her two small children. If convicted, Bukhantsov, 22, could face the death penalty or life without parole.
On October 23, 2012, Alina Bukhantsov, 23, and her two children Emmanuela, 3, and Avenir, 2, were fatally stabbed by the accused at their duplex home in Rancho Cordova. Bukhantsov’s brother Denis discovered their bodies of his wife and children. His six-month-old son was found unharmed at the crime scene.
“We’ve done all we can,” said co-counsel Hayes Gable outside the courtroom. “The jury has reached a verdict and we have to live with it.”
Gable and Jan Karowsky argued that their client’s mental state was a “major medical disorder brought on by psychosis,” that rendered the triple-murder suspect incapable of assisting them in his defense. Karowsky and Gable brought in witnesses to testify of Bukhantsov’s rants, outbursts and physical violence against his family and others in the years prior to the killings.
Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Donell Slivka agreed that Bukhantsov suffered from mental illness, but argued that he faked and exaggerated symptoms of mental illness in jail.
One psychiatrist also said that the accused showed a “sophistication not normal for defendants with mental health issues.”
Bukhantsov remains in Sacramento County Jail where he has been held since his 2012 arrest. Future hearings in the case have not yet been set.
