Two San Fernando Valley men sentenced to death for killing five people more than a decade ago had their sentences commuted to life in prison by President Biden on Monday.
In 2007, Iuri Mikel and Julijus Kadamovas were convicted of killing five people in a kidnap-for-ransom plot and sentenced to death. Prosecutors said the two dumped the bodies in a remote reservoir in Northern California.
Mikel and Kadamovas were among 37 criminals whose sentences were commuted to life in prison without parole by Biden. Biden did not commute the sentences of three other federal death row inmates convicted of mass murder and terrorism. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Dylann Roof was convicted in the 2015 shooting at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“Make no mistake about it, I condemn these murderers, I mourn the victims of their despicable acts, and my heart goes out to all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden said in a statement. ” he said. “I am more convinced than ever that we must end the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
Mikel and Kadamova, Soviet-born immigrants, hatched the kidnapping plan while working at an aquarium store on Ventura Boulevard. They kidnapped five people in four months starting in 2001.
They lured the victims with offers of business deals and demanded more than $5.5 million from the victims’ families. They received over $1 million in ransom, but killed the victim anyway by strangulation.
The two drove to New Melons Reservoir near Yosemite to dump the body.
Their victim was Nick Harabadze, 29, of Woodland Hills. Alexander Umansky, 35, Sherman Oaks. Rita Pekler, 39, lives in West Hollywood. George Safiev, 37, of Beverly Hills. and Mayer Muscatel, 58, of Sherman Oaks.
Once in prison, Mikel broke out of the San Bernardino jail using bolt cutters, pepper shakers, pitchforks, and fence cutters, and hatched several escape plans, including a plan to escape on a motorcycle with Kadamo Bus. However, the plan failed when a letter detailing the plan was found in a trash can by a security guard.
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to expand the death penalty to include “drug traffickers and human traffickers.” During President Trump’s first term, 13 people were put to death on federal death row, resuming the federal death penalty for the first time in nearly 20 years.
President Trump commuted the sentences of 70 people and pardoned 73 others at the end of his first term. Among them is former campaign and White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon. Mr. Bannon was charged with federal fraud and money laundering in a scheme to defraud supporters. Building a wall on the border with Mexico.
