MOSCOW, March 20 (Itar-Tass) – Moscow's Dorogomilovsky court sent the case over a fatal road accident case in Minskaya Street to the Nikulino court as the scene of the accident is located in the area of other court's jurisdiction, lawyer Igor Trunov, who represents the interests of injured parties, told Itar-Tass.
"The court decided to send the case materials to the Nikulino court as the crime was committed in a territory outside of the Dorogomilovsky court's jurisdiction," Trunov told Itar-Tass.
Judge Vyacheslav Mishin extended the arrest of defendant Alexander Maximov by one month. Maximov did not protest custody.
Earlier, he asked for plea bargain, but the court left the matter to the Nikulino court to decide.
"The injured parties are categorically opposed to special procedure trial, as in this case, the term of maximum sentence for Maximov will be reduced from nine years to six," the lawyer said.
Hiding his face under his hood, the culprit behind the fatal road accident in which seven persons were killed, declined to talk with reporters.
On September 22, 2012, Maximov's car smashed into a group of people at a bus stop, killing five adolescents, winners of the Moscow creativity festival of handicapped children and their teacher with her husband.
Specialists said Maximov's blood samples had tested 2.78 promille and showed traces of narcotics. Police suspended his license for drunk driving in 2010.
According to experts, Maximov's car was in good order as of the moment of the accident. "The results of a test showed that the steering and braking gear was in order. No evidence of failure was detected," the police press service reported earlier.
An expert examination said Maximov had driven at more than 79 kilometers per hour. However, police were unable to precisely ascertain the speed of the car.
At the stage of preliminary investigation, the injured parties lodged a 80-million-rouble damages suit.
"We ask for reimbursement of damage in connection with the children's death: the expenses the state carried in connection with the children’s staying at orphanage # 7 totaling 23,863.649 roubles, and moral damages in connection with their death: Vladimir Maltsev, Dmitry Uzbekov, Anastasia Alexandrova, Jesica Regush, Viktoria Ivanov, in the amount of 10 million roubles per child," Trunov said.
The injured parties thus claim 73,863.649 roubles in favor of the orphanage. They also demanded damages in connection with the death of orphanage teacher Olga Shirshova in favor of her mother Lyudmila Cherepanova /7 million roubles/ and her brother Roman Yeletsky /3 million roubles/.