This fresh-faced schoolboy who stabbed his drunken stepfather to death to protect his mother and little sister will not go to jail.
Alexei Tolstikhin, 14, fatally stabbed his stepfather, Ghenady Beloborodov, with a knife in the Republic of Buryatia in Russia on 8th January.
But prosecutors have decided he acted under duress, and there can be no criminal responsibility for anyone under the age of 16 when they are acting under duress.
According to the news website Lenta, the boy’s mother, Vera Tolstikhina, and her husband, Ghenady, had been visiting friends and had just returned home when he started to turn violent.
The man wanted to continue the fun and asked his wife, Alexei’s mother, to give him a bottle of vodka that was in the house.
She refused and locked herself in a room with her one-year-old daughter. Then the husband broke down the door and started assaulting her.
The 14-year-old boy came to his mother’s defence. Grabbing a knife, he stabbed his stepfather several times, and the man died on the spot from knife injuries.
The boy said: “I was sitting on an armchair, on the phone. I heard a row and got up to look. I saw that the door had been broken. He then went in, sat down on the bed and began to demand a bottle of alcohol from my mother.”
He said that when she refused, he grabbed her by the hair and started to violently shake her while she was still holding onto her child.
Alexei also added: “I was really worried for my mother, and Dasha (his little sister) was very afraid.”
The boy then admitted in tears that he carried out the murder, saying: “Yes, I killed him.”
The schoolboy mentioned that his relationship with his stepfather was initially fine, and that he sometimes even helped him with his homework. But after he lost his job, Ghenady became aggressive with all the family members.
On 30th July, local press announced that the boy’s prison sentence had been dropped.
Initially, a criminal case was opened under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Later, an examination established that the minor committed the crime in a state of mental trauma, as the victim drank regularly and was frequently violent towards his family members.
According to the family’s lawyer, Bair Ilyunov, responsibility for murder in a state of emotional crisis following mental trauma is only applicable from the age of 16.
