Soltys Admits Killing Relatives, Sources Say

In a draining, daylong interrogation, Nikolay Soltys confessed to the slayings of half a dozen family members and blamed the rampage on relatives he suspected of besmirching his name, law enforcement sources said Friday.

Grim-faced and without a lawyer, Soltys expressed no remorse during the eight-hour session after his arrest in connection with the deaths of his pregnant wife, 3-year-old son and four other relatives, sources close to the case said.

The 27-year-old Ukrainian immigrant later guided detectives on a tour of the shadowy trail he traveled for 10 days to dodge the biggest manhunt in Sacramento County history.

Soltys was arrested, barefoot and disheveled, in the backyard of his mother’s house early Thursday morning after he slipped past an undercover surveillance team.

While law enforcement officials worked to nail down their case against Soltys, a Sacramento public defender went to court Friday to argue that the prisoner’s rights had been violated. Soltys was without a lawyer for nearly two days after his arrest.

On Friday, Soltys was being kept in isolation at Sacramento County Jail in a secure cell with a 24-hour watch because of concerns he might commit suicide or be attacked by another inmate, authorities said.

Prosecutors are expected to push for the death penalty, though a decision won’t be made for several weeks. Attorneys for Soltys, who has a history of mental instability and domestic violence, are expected to counter with an insanity defense.

Sources close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that the suspect admitted to the knifing deaths and was ferried by investigators on a Thursday evening tour of his life on the run.

The stops included an abandoned house not far from Soltys’ suburban duplex in North Highlands, where the rampage began the morning of Aug. 20. Soltys apparently hid in the shuttered house for several nights as the manhunt swirled around him, one law officer said.

After fleeing the house, authorities believe Soltys stuck to a solitary routine, traveling at night along railroad beds and back streets, hiding during daylight under bridges and in drainage culverts.

With law officers prowling the streets, Soltys made only halting progress as he meandered east across the county to his mother’s house in Citrus Heights. There, law officers finally caught up to Soltys after being alerted to his presence by his brother.

Sources said the roots of the rampage seemed to be Soltys’ belief that his relatives “poisoned” his reputation by talking openly about his lack of drive and unwillingness to get a job. A shoemaker in the Ukraine, Soltys had been unemployed since arriving in the United States three years ago.

Notes Found in Car Help Explain Motive

Those statements dovetail with two notes investigators discovered in Soltys’ abandoned car the night of the slayings. One note, scrawled in Russian on the back of a family photo, led detectives to the bloodied body of Soltys’ son in a remote field. The other suggested the killings were retribution against relatives for things they had said.

Soltys’ cousin Sergey Kukharskiy said after the arrest that relatives were dumbfounded by any suggestion that family disagreements could be cited as a motive for murder.

“If it’s about that, he would have rationale to kill almost anybody around here,” Kukharskiy said, standing at the makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and balloons outside his parents’ suburban duplex, where four of the slayings took place. “Everybody talks.”

Though detectives continued to investigate whether Soltys might have been aided by some accomplice during his flight, the defendant denied he had help, an official close to the case said.

While news of his confession raced through the county, officials at the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department refused to discuss the interrogation in any detail at the direction of the district attorney.

Capt. John McGinness, a sheriff’s spokesman, would say only that investigators had “no doubt at all” about Soltys’ role by the end of the interview.

The interrogation by detectives, which was interrupted briefly so Soltys could eat, raised concerns with officials at the county public defender’s office.

Tommy Clinkenbeard, an assistant public defender, said he had been denied access to Soltys after the highly publicized arrest Thursday and was only allowed in to see the immigrant, who speaks limited English, late Friday.

“I’m angry,” Clinkenbeard said. “I don’t know that he understood, because of cultural differences and language barriers, what was going on. I’ve never been denied access like this to a client.”

A Superior Court judge Friday afternoon ordered jail officials to notify Soltys of his right to an attorney. Clinkenbeard said Soltys then asked to meet with the defense attorney.

Public Defender Leery About Interrogation

Clinkenbeard also raised doubts about investigators’ account of the interrogation. “I’m concerned about anything they’re purporting he said, given the way it was done,” he said.

Meanwhile, officials in Soltys’ native land expressed concern about the murder suspect. In Kiev, President Leonid Kuchma ordered Ukrainian diplomats to ensure that the rights of the murder suspect are respected.

McGinness said he has little doubt the matter of legal representation will become an issue at trial but said Sacramento authorities remain confident they are on firm ground.

“It was made abundantly clear to him, both in Ukrainian and English, that he has a right to counsel,” McGinness said. “He understood and waived that right.”

Officials in the district attorney’s office, meanwhile, raised concerns that publicity in the highly charged case--notably news reports that Soltys confessed--threatened to taint potential jurors’ neutrality and possibly force the case out of the county.

“We don’t like cases being tried in the media,” said Jeff Rose, assistant chief deputy district attorney. “It forces individuals to prejudge the case without it being heard in a court of law. The more details that come out, the worse it gets.”

Soltys is suspected of slashing to death his pregnant wife, 22-year-old Lyubov, then driving in his silver Nissan across town to where four other relatives were slain--an uncle, Petr Kukharskiy, 75; an aunt, Galina Kukharskaya, 74; and two cousins, Dimitriy Kukharskiy, and Tatyana Kukharskaya, both 9.

Detectives said Soltys then appeared at his mother’s house, where he whisked away his toddler son, Sergey. Soltys’ Nissan was discovered abandoned late that evening. His son’s blood-splattered body was found the next day in a cardboard box, slumped over a few toys, his throat slashed.