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From: Kari
Date: 3/9/02
Time: 4:18:54 PM
Architect sentenced to lengthy prison term in slaying of madam
March 9, 2002 Posted: 12:00:16 AM PST
LOS ANGELES (AP) - An architect was sentenced Friday to 25 years to life in prison for the slaying of his then-girlfriend's madam in her Studio City luxury apartment.
Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp ordered Alexander Gabay, 38, to serve the mandatory prison term despite pleas for leniency from prominent architects and friends.
"I wish I had discretion to exercise leniency," Schempp said.
A jury convicted Gabay in January of second-degree murder for the Aug. 17, 2000, beating and shooting death of Lyudmyla Petushenko, 29.
Petushenko, a prostitute, and Gabay's 23-year-old girlfriend, Oxana Meshkova, had argued in Petushenko's bedroom before the killing.
Gabay, a former Navy Seabee with no prior criminal record, denied shooting Petushenko and testified that Meshkova used his gun to fire the fatal shot.
Meshkova, however, testified that her former boyfriend intervened in the argument and killed Petushenko.
A witness during the trial testified that Gabay told him he had shot Petushenko and DNA evidence also linked blood found on Gabay's shoe to Petushenko.
Prosecutors who initially charged Meshkova with murder, later dropped the case against her.
Gabay was trying to steal information from Petushenko to open his own prostitution ring, said Deputy District Attorney Jane Winston. Petushenko also was trying to sell Meshkova into prostitution, Winston said, adding that Meshkova owed Petushenko $3,000 for transportation to the United States.
Gabay and Meshkova met at a party in July 2000 shortly after she entered the United States. She moved into Gabay's downtown Los Angeles loft within days and refused to work as a prostitute for Petushenko.
Gabay, a naturalized citizen who emigrated in 1979 with his family from Moscow, was a self-employed architect. He graduated from Fairfax High School and received a bachelor's degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture in 1994