3rd participant in kidnap-murder scheme gets life

A Ukrainian man was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in a kidnapping-for-ransom scheme that left five Los Angeles business people dead.

Petro Krylov, 34, avoided the death penalty by arguing that he participated in the kidnappings because the ringleaders were Russian mobsters and had threatened to kill him and relatives if he did not.

In an unusual twist, U.S. District Judge S. James Otero last month had asked Assistant U.S. Attys. Robert Dugdale and Susan Dewitt to reconsider their decision to seek Krylov’s execution because he was less culpable than the ringleaders, Iouri Mikhel and Jurijus Kadamovas, who were sentenced to death in February. Otero also noted “all of the evidence” that Krylov had acted under duress.

Dugdale said Tuesday that he and Dewitt discussed the issue with the Justice Department before pressing the ultimately unsuccessful bid for death.

The defendants were accused of luring victims to Mikhel’s and Kadamovas’ upscale San Fernando Valley homes in 2001 and 2002, holding them for ransom and then killing them even if the ransom was paid. The bodies were dumped in a reservoir.

One of the victims, Alexander Umansky, had fired Krylov from a job at his car electronics store. Krylov brought Umansky to the attention of Mikhel and Kadamovas and told them how much money he had on the books so they could demand the highest ransom before killing him.

The U.S. attorney charged Krylov with taking part in four of the kidnappings and with attempting to escape from the Metropolitan Detention Center. The jury convicted him of three of the kidnappings, acquitted him of one and acquitted him of the escape attempt.

There was some confusion about the verdict. After deliberating just two hours, jurors announced that they had reached a unanimous verdict, but they had not. All but three of the jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked. Otero sent them back to deliberate, and 10 minutes later they did indeed have a unanimous decision.

Otero thanked the jury, and the Department of Justice and the IRS for bringing “this dangerous, sophisticated gang to justice.”

Umansky’s father, Ruven, said he didn’t buy Krylov’s claims of fears that his family here and in Ukraine would be targeted if he didn’t participate in the plot.

“I was the one in danger,” said Umansky, who like Krylov is from Odessa. “After my son was kidnapped and killed, I was the first to go to the FBI. I should have been afraid.”

Still, he didn’t lament Krylov eluding the death penalty.

“Life is good for him,” said Umansky. “Let him rot in prison for life.”

joe.mozingo@latimes.com