MOSCOW, November 30 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian man who murdered and robbed five pensioners near Saratov has been sentenced to life in prison, the Investigative Committee said on Friday.
A Volga Federal District court found Nikolai Zorin, 40, guilty of killing two elderly couples and a 76-year-old woman in the remote village of Rovnoye in Saratov region, between January and October 2011.
The elderly villagers were stabbed to death in their homes. After killing them, Zorin took what money they had and other property, including irons and blood pressure monitors.
“Senior citizens are ideal victims. They are not strong enough to struggle and they all have some money saved up to cover the cost of their funerals,” Komsomolskaya Pravda daily quoted Zorin as saying.
Meanwhile, a 40-year-old man in Bashkortostan, also part of Volga Federal District, was sentenced on Friday to 19 years in jail for killing two prostitutes, the local Investigative Committee said.
Ivan Kotkov killed the women, a 34-year-old and a 45-year-old, in two separate incidents in 2010 and 2011. Kotkov lured his victims to a deserted spot before killing them and taking their money.