Verdict handed down in case of murder of police colonel

In the Stavropol Regional Court yesterday, the verdict was announced to Vyacheslav Vodovskikh, a resident of the city of Mikhailovsk. He was accused of the murder in February of this year of the deputy head of the department for combating offenses in the consumer market of the Stavropol Central Internal Affairs Directorate, Alexander Belokopyt. The person who ordered the crime, according to investigators, was the wife of a policeman, Natalya Belokopyt, who did not want to share her business with her husband. The court sentenced Vyacheslav Vodovskikh to 16 years in prison.

Alexander Belokopyt was shot in the back of the head from a TOZ-34 hunting rifle. Experts concluded that Mr. Belokopyt was killed with his own gun. It was incomprehensible how a criminal could take possession of someone else’s weapon, which was stored in a special safe, when even just getting into Mr. Belokopat’s mansion, fenced with a two-meter fence and equipped with an alarm system, was not easy. Examining the crime scene, investigators came to the conclusion that the killer was waiting for the colonel in the house. And according to the testimony of neighbors, on the day of the murder, no one except the Belokopy spouses entered their family plot. As a result, suspicion fell on Mrs. Belokopyt. She was detained, and already during the first interrogations she admitted that she ordered the murder of her husband, and also named the perpetrator. It turned out to be a resident of Mikhailovsk, Vyacheslav Vodovskikh. According to the investigation, Ms. Belokopyt and Mr. Vodovskikh met in 2003, when the latter was renovating the home of the Belokopyt family. As follows from the materials of the criminal case, in mid-January of this year, the policeman’s wife met with Vyacheslav Vodovskikh and offered him 1 million rubles. kill her husband. Ms. Belokopyt, the indictment says, explained to her friend that her relationship with her husband had completely deteriorated, which could affect her “property interests.” Apparently, Natalya Belokopyt was afraid that her husband would demand the division of her business - a chain of food kiosks in Mikhailovsk.

As follows from the case materials, on February 1, Natalya Belokopyt brought the killer to her home and left him there. When the colonel returned from duty at about seven o'clock in the evening, the killer shot him simultaneously from two guns right in the hallway of the house. The charges hit the head, the policeman died immediately. According to the investigation, having fulfilled the order, Vyacheslav Vodovskikh threw the spent cartridges and gun into the Chla River. On the advice of the person who ordered the murder, he also destroyed the clothes he was wearing at the crime scene.

According to the investigation, Vodovskikh received only 3 thousand rubles for the completed order. The policeman's widow explained that she could not give the entire promised amount, since the safe with the money was sealed by the investigation, and promised to finally pay later.

Vyacheslav Vodovskikh was charged with murder committed for hire (Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He did not admit guilt either during the investigation or in court and refused to testify and have the last word. The court sentenced the defendant to 16 years in a maximum security colony. After listening to the verdict, Vyacheslav Vodovskikh remarked: “They made me an extreme person.” Meanwhile, the case of Natalya Belokopyt, which was separated into separate proceedings, has not yet been received by the court: at the request of her lawyers, the widow is undergoing a psychiatric examination.

Alexandra Kommersant-Larintseva, Stavropol

The customer underpaid the killer