The court reduced Efremova's prison term in the case of a tragic road accident
'22.10.2020'
Source: RBC
The court reduced by six months the term of imprisonment for the actor Mikhail Efremov, who was found guilty of an accident with the death of a person. He previously received eight years in prison, writes RBC.
The Moscow City Court has reduced the term of imprisonment to 7,5 years for the actor Mikhail Efremov, who previously received eight years in prison in the case of the accident on Smolenskaya Square, in which a person died. This decision was made by a panel of judges under the leadership of judge Lyubov Ishmuratova, RBC correspondent reports.
Thus, the court partially satisfied the appeal of Efremov and his defenders to the verdict.
At the beginning of September, the Presnensky Court of Moscow found the Honored Artist of Russia guilty of violating traffic rules, resulting in the death of a person by negligence and committed in a state of intoxication (paragraph "a", part 4 of article 264 of the Criminal Code). On the evening of June 8, on the Garden Ring, near Smolenskaya Square, Efremov's Jeep Grand Cherokee flew into the oncoming lane and crashed into a Lada Granta van driven by a 57-year-old courier driver of the Delikateska online store Sergey Zakharov. The man received injuries incompatible with life.
During the medical examination, 1,05 mg / l of alcohol was found in Efremov's blood, which corresponded to 2,1 ppm; such an indicator indicated that the artist had drunk about a bottle of vodka or an equivalent amount of alcohol before the accident. Traces of cannabinoids and cocaine were also found in his analyzes and in the car.
The sentence, harsh by the standards of general practice for this composition of the Criminal Code, was pronounced taking into account the fact that most of the trial Efremov did not agree with the prosecution. Following his lawyer Elman Pashayev (now deprived of his status for scandalous appearances in the media), the actor refused the initial admission of guilt and said that he might not have been in the driver's seat at the time of the accident. “I am inclined to sit in the passenger seat, moreover, I am inclined to believe that they dragged me there,” Efremov said at one of the meetings, adding that he did not remember the moment of the accident. But in his last word, the actor stated that admits guilt and regrets what he did.
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“Pashayev appeared like a snow on his head on the same day [the day of the accident], he began to call my director. We have some common acquaintances, but they are so distant that I do not want to know them. He convinced me to refuse to admit guilt, although I was counting on a special order. And the worst thing he did was say insulting, outrageous things towards the victims, although I several times asked him not to do this. He believed that in this way he inclines public opinion in my direction, - said Efremov, speaking in the debate of the parties. - I was like in some kind of confusion. He is an energetic person, oriental and maybe even not bad. Everything Elman did, he did charmingly, and I even liked that. In such a situation, of course, it was easier to put pressure on me. Indeed, there was a big mistake with the lawyer. "
“This tragedy actually divided my life into“ before ”and“ after ”. In my new life, I do not sleep well and all the time I think about Sergei Zakharov and his loved ones. It is unlikely that I will ever get behind the wheel again, and I also ended all my relationship with alcohol, which brought me to such a deplorable end, ”the artist said in his last word and added that he was ready to pay for the installation of a monument at Zakharov's grave.
He ended his speech with a request to impose a sentence not related to imprisonment.
What did Efremov and his defense ask for
In his appeal against the verdict, Efremov asked for a mitigation of punishment, referred to an admission of guilt, a willingness to compensate the victims and pressure from the lawyer Pashayev. His new defenders Pyotr Kharkhorin, Roman Filippov and Vladimir Vasiliev, who entered the case after the artist refused the services of Pashayev, wrote in their appeals about the excessive severity of the punishment.
“Communicating with my client, I was convinced that he sincerely regrets what he had done,” lawyer Filippov said in court and harshly criticized his former colleague Elman Pashayev, who defended the actor in the first instance. He imposed on Efremov a position opposite to his own, which is contrary to advocacy ethics, Filippov says. Pashayev's actions testified to "blatant unprofessionalism", were, in fact, an abuse of the client's trust and deprived the actor of a chance for a lighter punishment, he said.
The actor's former defenders, Pashayev and Elizaveta Shargorodskaya, also appealed against the verdict, although the defendant insisted that their appeals be removed from consideration (the court explained to him that only the defender himself could withdraw the appeal). They did not participate in the meeting. Pashayev, who previously admitted that the anomalous activity of "energy holes", "thunderstorms", "aerosol clouds", the actions of hackers or the use of anti-icing reagents in June could have led to the accident, put forward another alternative version of the death of Sergei Zakharov in his appeal. In his opinion, it was not a collision with Efremov's jeep that could have led to the death of a person, but "a coup by eyewitnesses of the car accident" and untimely provision of medical assistance.
Seat belt question
Kharkhorin's lawyer said that the defense in no way diminishes the artist's guilt, but considers it his duty to collect all possible mitigating circumstances.
“According to the decision of the plenum of the Supreme Court, the violation of traffic rules by the victim can be recognized as a mitigating circumstance for the perpetrator of the accident,” he said and asked the court to interrogate forensic scientist Elena Kuchina.
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At the request of the defense, the physician examined the photographs of the body of Sergei Zakharov and his car, got acquainted with the protocols of interrogations of the traffic police officers who worked at the scene of the accident, and other materials of the case. She noted that there were no strip-like abrasions and bruises on the driver's body, which appear if at the time of the accident a person is wearing a seat belt. But there were severe bruises of the chest and abdomen, rib fractures; they were caused by an impact on the steering column, which would not have happened if the driver had been fixed.
"In the case of a strap-on, lethal outcome is unlikely," Kuchina said in the conclusion.
Kharkhorin and Filippov personally inspected Zakharov's car, which is stored at a special parking lot, and found that the belt was "pristine clean, as if it had never been used," the lawyer said. In addition, they found plugs in the car that disable the alarm that notifies you of the unfastened seat belt.
According to the conclusions of the physician Svetlana Romodanovskaya, who had previously examined the body of the deceased as part of the investigation, Zakharov was strapped on: this, in her opinion, indicated a bruise on the shoulder, the position of the collarbones after the accident, the absence of ejection, the absence of rupture of the heart and aorta. Her expert experience is much longer than that of Kuchina, besides, she examined Zakharov's body directly, and not a photo, said representatives of the victims, led by lawyer Alexander Dobrovinsky.
What the prosecution and the victims insisted on
State prosecutors Diana Galiullina and Anna Svintsova believed that the sentence should be upheld. The court of first instance treated the circumstances of the case fairly and did not show an "accusatory bias", the prosecutors are sure. Separately, they criticized Efremov's statements that he took a strange position in the process under pressure from Pashayev. The lawyers skillfully did everything that was required of them, and Efremov clearly trusted their line of defense, Galiullina and Svintsova believe. For example, during the disciplinary proceedings, which ended with the deprivation of Pashayev's status, Efremov officially applied to the bar association with a letter, where he demanded not to apply such a strict sanction to his former defender.
Efremov, without any influence from Pashayev, allowed himself in the court session "inappropriate remarks", "which were clearly his author's impromptu, and not the instigation of defenders," the state prosecutors stressed in their objections to the appeals, calling the artist's statements about the pressure of the lawyer "another attempt to escape responsibility ".
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The victims, members of the family of the deceased Zakharov, also objected to the mitigation of the sentence to Efremov. Lawyer Dobrovinsky, in particular, questioned Pashayev's allegations of pressure on him: "Efremov is an adult, independent and capable person who could not help but be aware of his actions."
“Mikhail Olegovich, today for the first time I heard from you something human. Previously, I heard from you only nasty things about the victims, ”Dobrovinsky said, answering the actor's speech in the debate of the parties.
The victims saw only one possible reason for the mitigation of punishment: if Efremov paid each of the three victims 1 million rubles. for moral damage. The victims filed relevant claims in the Khamovnichesky court. As it turned out at the first session on Tuesday, Efremov's defense was ready to pay off the Zakharovs' family right in the courtroom: the defenders came to the trial literally with a suitcase of cash.
“We have 2,4 million with us. We are ready to pay 800 thousand right now,” said Efremov's lawyer Petr Kharkhorin, explaining that earlier the actor had already transferred 200 thousand to each of the victims.
Dobrovinsky, not objecting to compensation as such, retorted that his principals were categorically not ready to take cash. And the 200 thousand mentioned by the defender, paid by Efremov not by a court decision, but privately, the Zakharovs previously "indignantly" returned to the actor. By the end of the trial, the parties had not agreed on compensation.
The verdict was also appealed by the leasing company - the owner of the van, which was driven by the courier Zakharov - Stone-XXI: the court of first instance refused to consider her the injured party in the case, although her Lada Granta van was destroyed without the possibility of restoration due to Yefremov's actions. Irina Sterkhova, the common-law wife of the deceased Zakharov, also appealed the refusal to recognize her as a victim.
Artists and jailers agreed
Efremov's defenders suggested that the court study several new documents. Among them - an appeal to the court of 300 cultural workers from Chuvashia, where Efremov was many times, and a letter from 28 famous artists and directors, who in the letter “harshly condemned what Efremov did”, but based on data on his personality and admission of guilt , asked to mitigate his sentence. The initiator of this appeal was a friend of Efremov, actor Nikita Vysotsky, said lawyer Kharkhorin.
“We understand perfectly well that the crime for which Efremov was convicted is terrible: because of his reckless actions, a man died. But the past cannot be returned, and the present must be changed for the better, ”the leaders wrote, adding that they sincerely believe in his complete repentance. Efremov has six children, of whom three are dependent on him, the letter says.
The capital's pre-trial detention center-5 "Vodnik" gave Efremov a characteristic: it is extremely positive, which is a rarity, said the defender Kharkhorin.
“The convicted Efremov complies with the internal regulations and his duties in full. By nature, he is calm, balanced, able to control his emotions, non-conflict. He reacts to comments correctly, draws the necessary conclusions, looks neat, and behaves correctly among inmates, ”the report says.
“This is the first time I have seen someone given such a description. As if she's for a promotion or a presentation for a state award. This is how he recommended himself, ”the lawyer said.
Meanwhile, doctors in the isolation ward examined Efremov and found that he had many chronic diseases, including chronic bronchitis, asthma, atherosclerotic heart disease and fatty liver degeneration, follows from their conclusion, also presented to the court.
