Kingston man charged in 2002 murder of wife.
By: Joseph Harvie
The 3-year-old case of a Kingston man on trial for allegedly stabbing his wife to death will not begin until after an April 18 status conference.
According to police, Boris Boretsky, 55, was charged with fatally stabbing his wife of eight years, Saoule Moukhametova, on the living room sofa, in March 2002.
Mr. Boretsky had made a 911 call saying his wife had tried to commit suicide, police said. Police said they found a butcher’s knife near Ms. Moukhametova’s body and that she had died from a stab wound to the chest.
The Middlesex County prosecutor’s office is appealing a ruling by Superior Court Judge James Mulvihill in 2004 that statements allegedly made by Mr. Boretsky to police were not admissible as evidence in the murder trial.
Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch said Judge Mulvihill ruled that Mr. Boretsky was not presented with his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination before he answered questions from police regarding the death of his wife. The judge said police did not honor Mr. Boretsky’s request that they speak to his attorney via a cell phone.
Mr. Sewitch said that when police entered the house, Mr. Boretsky tried handing police a cell phone several times and told them to speak with his lawyer. Mr. Sewitch said that at the time police were responding to a 911 call of an attempted suicide.
Mr. Sewitch said Mr. Boretsky was read his Miranda Rights several times while he was in police custody, including at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was taken the night of the incident.
However, Judge Mulvihill ruled that since Mr. Boretsky requested that police talk to his lawyer all his statements were inadmissible as evidence.
Mr. Sewitch said he could not say what Mr. Boretsky’s statements were.
Mr. Boretsky was also indicted on charges of aggravated assault, criminal contempt for violating a restraining order and making terrorist threats.
Mr. Sewitch said Wednesday he does not expect the Appellate Division of Superior Court in Trenton to make a decision in April, just listen to the oral arguments in the case.
Mr. Sewitch said he will seek the death penalty if Mr. Boretsky is convicted. Mr. Boretsky is being held in the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in lieu of $1.5 million bail.

