Haifa Court Sentences Nikolai Bonner to Four Consecutive Life Terms for Four Murders in 2005
Bonner killed a woman who had invited him into her home and three homeless men he drank with. It was the heaviest sentence the Haifa District Court had imposed.
Published
In 2005, four people were killed in Haifa and the scenes set on fire. On May 6, 2007, the Haifa District Court sentenced Nikolai Bonner, 50, to four consecutive life terms, equal to 120 years, for the murders.
The panel of Deputy President Menachem Na'aman and Judges Menachem Finkelstein and Kamal Saab also gave Bonner 17 concurrent years for rape, assault, arson, destroying evidence and obstruction of justice. Ynet reported that it was the heaviest sentence the court had ever imposed. The defense had presented expert opinions that Bonner suffered from chronic paranoid psychosis, but the judges accepted the opinions that he had only a personality disorder.
Bonner's first victim was Rita Volman, 51, who had invited him to her home in February 2005. He then killed three homeless men he had been drinking with: Alexander Levnet, 36, Valery Sachnov, 42, and Alexander Kress, 39. A fifth man, also homeless, survived a severe beating and later helped investigators solve the crimes. Bonner was arrested at the end of May 2005 and convicted in November 2006 after the judges reviewed his police confessions and videos of him reenacting the killings.
Bonner maintained his innocence, saying he had confessed only under police pressure. He had rejected a plea deal under which he would have served two consecutive life terms. His lawyer, Ofer Cohen, said he would appeal both the convictions and the sentence.
Ynet gave Rita Volman's age as 51, while the Russian-language site NEWSru.co.il gave it as 54.
Sources
- רוצח ההומלסים נשלח לארבעה מאסרי עולם (Homeless killer sent to four life terms), Ynet (Ahiya Raved)
- Репатриант, признавшийся в убийстве 4 человек, отказался от своих показаний, NEWSru.co.il