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Confessed Subway Stabber Sentenced To 200 Years In Prison
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 18, 2012
Modified Jan 18, 2012
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jan 18, 2012
Modified Jan 18, 2012
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The 24-year-old Brooklyn man who admitted to killing four people and injuring four others during a 28-hour stabbing rampage across Brooklyn and Manhattan last February has been sentenced to 200 years to life in prison. Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent DelGiudice called Maksim Gelman, who previously plead guilty to four counts of murder and one count of attempted murder, a "pathologically violent predator." And Gelman reportedly had harsh words for DelGiudice, telling him as he left the court, "suck my Russian di*k." DelGiudice replied, "I decline your offer."
Oddly enough, this wasn't the first time DelGiudice had been told off in exactly this manner by a defendant: according to the Post, DelGiudice sentenced Fort Greene murderer Zaire Paige to 107 years in prison one year ago. Paige yelled at him, “From the bottom of my heart, suck my di*k.” The judge replied, “I respectfully decline your offer."
Gelman also exchanged words with one of his victim's boyfriends during the sentencing—he was kicked out of the courtroom at one point for yelling, "don't say, my name in vain...I'll murder you."
Although he initially pleaded not guilty, a psychiatrist said that Gelman couldn't argue he was not guilty by reason of insanity, and he plead guilty to all the murder counts. “It is quite likely, almost guaranteed, that any sentence I give means you’d never be released from a penal institution while you are alive,” DelGiudice had told Gelman when he pleaded guilty.
Gelman's 28-hour murder spree began on February 11 when he stabbed his stepfather, 54-year-old Aleksandr Kuznetsov, in Sheepshead Bay after a family argument over the use of his mother’s car. He told the News Kuznetsov had to die because he tried to scam his mother out of two condos in her name
Later in the day, he fatally stabbed a woman he referred to as his ex-girlfriend, Yelena Bluchenko, 20, and her mother, Anna, 56. Bluchenko, whom friends said that Gelman stalked, was portrayed by him as a former associate who betrayed him.
After killing the two women, he allegedly attacked a passing motorist, stabbing 60-year-old Art DiCrescento in order to steal his car. While driving DiCrescento's Pontiac Bonneville, Gelman struck 62-year-old Stephen Tanenbaum, who later died in the hospital. He was eventually caught by police at the Times Square subway station around the 40th Street and 7th Avenue exits after slashing subway passenger Joseph Lozito.
After he was apprehended, Gelman was held in the Bellevue psych ward after failing the intake physical and mental exam at Rikers Island. Among other things, he allegedly said of his stabbing rampage, "Sometimes, my mind isn't right."
In a jailhouse interview this past weekend, Gelman claimed he was responsible for six more murders before this year, including two people he says he ran over in Sheepshead Bay six years ago, and four drug dealers who crossed him. He also revealed that he desperately wanted to track down and kill notorious murder suspect, Levi Aron, who allegedly dismembered and slaughtered a little boy in Brooklyn: "I would have been New York’s hero."
Tagged
brooklyn
maksim gelman
murder
rampage
subway
subway stabber
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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