BOSTON — The man prosecutors say is behind the two men found in plastic storage containers in a Boston storage unit is being held without bail as the pieces of his case are put together.
Leonid Volkov, 37, of Medford, appeared in Somerville District Court Tuesday morning, shackled and wearing the same Jurassic Park T-shirt that appeared in his booking photo from his Saturday arrest. He was charged with one count of murder and one count of larceny from a building, to which he pleaded not guilty.
The Middlesex District Attorney’s office on Friday issued the photos of Pavel Vekshin 28, and Kiryl Schukin, 37, in an attempt to get the public’s help in locating the Medford married couple who co-workers and friends told police they hadn’t heard from since March 30.
The next day, the bodies of the two men were located in a storage unit in the Brighton neighborhood. Schukin’s body, prosecutor Ceara Mahoney said Tuesday, was dismembered with different pieces scattered among three different containers. Vekshin’s body was found in one bin.
Both men had died from sharp-force injuries and their deaths were homicide, she said.
Volkov is so far only charged with Schukin’s murder, though Mahoney said that additional charges will come as the investigation continues.
She asked for the affidavit of probable cause and the arrest warrant — as well as all court documents aside from the criminal complaint — be impounded, citing the ongoing investigation.
Judge William Fitzpatrick agreed and ordered the documents be kept out of public view.
Prosecutors, however, outlined the case in court.
Schukin had signed on as a guarantor for the Cabot Road apartment where Volkov lived with his wife and two children.
Volkov’s defense attorney Debra Dewitt said following the hearing that the two men had been friends for years and had met on social media but said she did not know further details of their relationship as she was just learning the details of the case now.
Mahoney in court said that Schukin had learned that Volkov was in arrears on his rent payments and so Schukin had announced he wanted to pull out of the arrangement. The two men then met in a U-Haul, which is the last time that Schukin was seen alive.
Mahoney then laid out that Schukin’s BMW appeared in surveillance footage at the storage unit as well as the U-Haul and that footage appeared to show a man fitting Volkov’s description moving things between the vehicles and into the storage units.
She added that surveillance footage from stores throughout eastern Massachusetts show a man who looks like Volkov purchasing things — including cleaning supplies like bleach and rubber gloves — from those stores and sometimes using one of the victim’s credit cards.
Personal items including an electric scooter were also missing from Schukin’s apartment, leading to the larceny charge.
While Fitzpatrick said that Volkov did not appear to qualify for a court-appointed attorney based on his listed income — which his attorney said came from work in the IT industry — he granted Dewitt’s appointment because Volkov was evicted from his apartment, leaving him and his family homeless.
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