Boretsky will fight
for his life during
two-phase trial
Boris Boretsky
of two S.B. murders
Boretsky will fight
for his life during
two-phase trial
Michael Janicki
By charles w. kim
Staff Writer
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office will seek the death penalty for a man accused of stabbing his ex-wife to death in March, but not for a son charged with slaying his father.
Boris Boretsky, 52, will face the death penalty when he is tried for allegedly killing his ex-wife at the couple’s Kingston Home on March 5.
Boretsky is accused of breaking into the home and stabbing Saoule Moukhametova, 41, in the chest with a butcher knife.
Assistant prosecutor Joseph Rea said that the office will seek the ultimate penalty for Boretsky because of the aggravating factors related to the murder.
"He was violating a restraining order and it was in the commission of another crime," Rea said.
A grand jury returned an indictment for Boretsky on May 28, charging him with murder.
While Boretsky will face the ultimate punishment if convicted, Michael Janicki, 19, will only face jail time if he is found guilty of slaying his father, Ortwin, 55, in Dayton on July 17.
A grand jury returned an indictment on Janicki last week and assistant prosecutor Thomas Kapsak said that the office will not seek the death penalty in that case.
"None of the aggravating factors applied," Kapsak said.
Janicki is charged with entering his father’s room in the early morning hours and stabbing him several times with a three-foot long sword.
Janicki is scheduled to be arraigned on the murder charge tomorrow in Superior Court.
"There is no second-degree murder in New Jersey," Kapsak said.
According to Kapsak, the prosecutor’s office decided on both cases by following the same procedure.
After the indictments are handed down and the grand jury determined that the defendant committed the murder by his own conduct, three to five assistants met with prosecutor Bruce Kaplan to determine if the aggravating factors involved in the case outweighed the mitigating factors.
"The grand jury is out of it," Kapsak said.
Kapsak said that the aggravating factors considered by the committee in the office are specifically laid out in state statutes.
"There is not just one person making the decision," Kapsak said.
Kapsak said that those factors include committing a prior murder, committing a murder through torture, being paid to commit a murder, committing a murder while trying to escape detection, committing a murder while in the commission of another crime, killing a public servant, or killing a minor.
Violating a restraining order, as Borestky is accused of, is a specific factor, according to Kapsak.
Rea said that in the Boretsky case, that factor and the fact that he broke into the home were major factors in that decision.
"That is the reason we are seeking the death penalty," Rea said.
In addition to the aggravating factors, the committee also looks at the mitigating factors which Kapsak said included extreme mental disturbance or emotional condition that would not rise to the level of an insanity defense, someone who is very young, someone with a clean record prior to the crime or someone who has cooperated with authorities in prosecuting other crimes.
Kapsak said that Janicki’s case did not meet any of the aggravating factors set out in the statute to be considered for the death penalty.
"We are the gatekeepers to this function. We consider each case carefully," Kapsak said.
Kapsak said that once a death penalty case goes to trial, it becomes a two-phase process.
If the defendant is found guilty of committing the murder, then a second trial with the same jury begins.
That phase decides if the defendant will be sentenced to death or a prison term.
The jury hears testimony from both sides explaining the factors involved in the crime. Both sides usually bring in expert testimony as well as testimony from the family and friends of both the defendant and the victim.
At that point, it is up to the jury to weigh the factors and decide if the defendant should receive a death sentence. The jury must be unanimously in favor of the death penalty in order for the defendant to be sentenced to death.
"The jury makes the final determination," Kapsak said.
According to Kapsak, there are currently 15 people on death row. Three are from Middlesex County.
Although a total of 52 people have been sentenced to death, no one has been executed in the state since 1963.