Novgorod Case - What Happened: The Version of The Prosecution

What Happened: The Version of The Prosecution

This section is a slightly abridged version of Kolodkin's official reply to the official request for information filed by Novgorod City Duma deputy Aleksandr Deyna. The full text of the said reply in Russian is published in Deyna’s blog (the record in question is dated April 25, 2007).

The pre-investigation revealed that on February 26, 2007, about 9 o’clock AM, Antonina Fyodorova proceeded to carry out the premeditated murder of her three-year-old daughter Alisa, who was a hindrance to her mother's private life. At this time, she took Alisa from her apartment (No. 31, located on the second floor of 26 Kosmonavtov Street, where they are officially registered) to the staircase landing.

Thinking that no witnesses to her actions are present in the stairwell, Antonina proceeded to stage an accidental fall of her daughter from the third-floor landing. As Alisa’s mother, Antonina was fully aware of her daughter’s young age. Therefore, Antonina was sure that the three-year-old was incapable either of completely understanding the criminal intent of her mother or of putting up a fight against her. Antonina, fully intending to kill her daughter, pushed Alisa through the metal bars of the railing of the stairwell in such a manner that Alisa found herself beyond the zone of safety. In the next few seconds, Antonina held Alisa by the hands, and then, so as to continue the implementation of her criminal design and fulfill it, Antonina let Alisa go, thus actually throwing her daughter down the stairwell. These actions resulted in Alisa’s falling down the stairwell and in Alisa’s body and head’s hitting the stone floor of the ground floor landing.

However, Antonina was ultimately unable to complete her premeditated crime due to circumstances outside of her control. The fall failed to result in Alisa’s death, though she hit the stone floor. She sustained the following body injuries: a lower jaw fracture (left side), a full dislocation of three teeth, a concussion, some abrasions to her chin, and a bruise in the groin (right side). These body injuries are classified to be of medium severity because they led to a prolonged incapacitation of the victim amounting to no less than three weeks.

After the initial inquiry into the event, on March 22, 2007, the Office of Novgorod City Public Prosecutor officially opened a criminal case No. 9973 against Antonina Fyodorova, born in 1985, under Articles 30.3 and 105 of CC-RF.

Antonina was officially interrogated as a suspect on April 9, 2007. As a restriction measure, the investigation ordered her to sign a written undertaking stating that she is not to leave the city of Novgorod.

During the initial inquiry and later during the interrogations, both as a suspect and as an accused, Antonina was unable to produce a coherent version of the events. Her evidence was garbled and inconsistent because her goal was to exonerate herself and represent the crime she had committed as a mere accident.

Antonina’s guilt in the committing the said crime is proved beyond reasonable doubt by the evidence provided by an eyewitness, a minor (an 11-year-old boy who, during the event, stood on the third floor landing), who witnessed the criminal actions as they were being committed.