TWO BROTHERS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR THE MURDER OF THEIR EX TEACHER

Stanislaw Kostsew, 19, and his brother Illya, 21, face being blindfolded and made to kneel then shot in the back of the headCredit: East2west News

DOOMED TO DIE Brothers sentenced to death for brutally murdering ex teacher in Belarus – Europe’s last country with the death penalty

Will Stewart

11 Jan 2020, 0:30Updated: 11 Jan 2020, 0:32

TWO brothers aged 19 and 21 have been sentenced to death for brutally murdering their former teacher in Belarus, the last country in Europe where execution is permitted.

The pair’s final hope of staying alive is to plead for clemency from strongman president Alexander Lukashenko - but he has already publicly branded them “scum”.

Stanislaw Kostsew, 19, and his brother Illya, 21, face being blindfolded and made to kneel then shot in the back of the head by a state executioner.

They were found guilty of stabbing teacher Natalya Kostritsa around 100 times before setting her house on fire.

Unusually, Lukashenko - who has dismissed international human rights criticism over the use of the death penalty - had revealed details of the case even before the guilty verdict.

The pair were exacting revenge for the teacher demanding that social services removed the children from the care of their sister - who Lukashenko branded an “asocial element”.

The Belarus ruler said in December: “Two scum - there's no other name for them since they have been previously convicted of assault - killed their teacher.

“For what? For protecting two of their sister's children?

He said: “They stabbed and cut her all through the night.

“They were killing her all night long.

“She begged, and in the end, they finished her off by dawn despite her pleas.”

The brothers were caught when the teacher’s stolen computer was found in their house.

They confessed stabbing her to death and throwing the knife into the local Sozh River.

In court, the pair pleaded for mercy, claiming they were drunk.

“I don’t know what went wrong,” said Illya.

“Maybe vodka acted like that. I still can’t explain why I killed her.”

Stanislaw - who said he was an accomplice - pleaded in court: ‘Give us a chance.”

But the victim’s mother Vera Gordievitch objected, demanding: “Who will return my daughter?”

More than 400 men have been executed in Belarus since the country became independent with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Luksashenko has been in power since 1994.

The EU and various international organisations have urged Belarus to stop using the death penalty.

INTERNET SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/VictimsFamiliesForTheDeathPenalty/posts/2522002524588365

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10715772/brothers-sentenced-death-belarus-murder-teacher/

RECIDIVIST KILLER: CAMERON RAYFORD MURDERED AGAIN AFTER RELEASE FROM PRISON FOR MURDER OF 2 WOMEN

            Cameron Rayford shot Justin Rayshun on December 23, 2019. He previously pleaded guilty in the murders of two women found dead in a burned car on November 20, 2001. 

  

Cameron Rayford (Jefferson County Jail)

Man who pleaded guilty in killings of 2 women in 2001 is behind bars on new Bham murder charge

Updated Dec 31, 10:11 PM;Posted Dec 31, 6:10 PM

By Carol Robinson | crobinson@al.com

A man who previously pleaded guilty in the deaths of two women found dead in a burned car is now charged in another murder.

Birmingham police on Tuesday announced the arrest of 36-year-old Cameron Rayford. He is charged with murder in the Dec. 23 Roosevelt City shooting that killed Justin Rayshun Johnson and wounded another man. He was taken into custody by the department’s Crime Reduction Team.

Birmingham police and fire medics responded that Monday at 1:11 p.m. to the house at 5929 Martin Luther Avenue in Roosevelt City. Sgt. Johnny Williams said they arrived to find Johnson suffering from a gunshot wound.

Johnson was taken to UAB Hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival. A second victim was located near the scene with a gunshot wound to the hand and is expected to be OK.

Williams on Tuesday said the investigation showed the deadly shooting was the result of a verbal altercation.

Rayford was arrested in March 2012 and charged with capital murder in the slayings of Kimberly Roy, 29, of Hueytown, and Sandie Lyn Mitchell, 28, of Midfield. The two women were found in a burned vehicle on Nov. 20, 2001.

Birmingham police at the time of his initial arrest said people got tired of seeing a man they believed got away with killing two women walking the streets of Roosevelt City. Finally, they said, someone came forward in January of 2012, and helped investigators build a case against Rayford.

Investigators said a drug-deal-gone-bad led to the two deaths. Kimberly Roy struggled with drug addiction for more than 10 years, but her father said at the time of Rayford's arrest that she was a born-again Christian. Mitchell, her parents said, was survived by a daughter who was seven at the time of her mother's death.

In May 2012, Rayford was released from jail after posting $150,000 bond and fled the state. A year later he was arrested by sheriff’s deputies in Virginia for driving 100 miles per hour. Authorities learned that he was out on bond for capital murder and wasn’t supposed to leave the state of Alabama.

Rayford, who was 18 at the time of the 2001 killings, pleaded guilty in 2014 to a reduced charge of provocation manslaughter and drug trafficking. As part of a plea deal with prosecutors, he received a 20-year split sentence with four years of confinement. He was put on probation for the trafficking charge.

Because of time served, Rayford was expected to actually serve about 2 ½ more years behind bars upon his sentencing. It wasn’t immediately clear when Rayford was released from prison.

He had initially faced the death penalty. Prosecutors at the time said the case was settled because of witness issues.

Court records show Bessemer Cutoff Circuit Judge David Carpenter on Nov. 20, 2019 issued a warrant for Rayford’s arrest on a probation violation charge. The order did not say what Rayford had done to violate his probation and it was not clear if he had ever been arrested on that warrant before Monday.

Rayford was booked into the Jefferson County Jail on his new murder charge shortly before 10 p.m. Monday. He is being held without bond.

OTHER LINKS:

Victim

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2019/12/31-year-old-identified-as-birminghams-latest-homicide-victim.html

Birmingham man faced possible death penalty in 'cold case' deaths of 2 women; to serve 4 years in plea deal

https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2014/08/birmingham_man_facing_possible.html