The fourth day of the trial for the three men charged with committing various violent burglaries and robberies from 2009 to 2010 led with the continued testimony of the confidential informant who led to the arrest of the defendants.
The three defendants, Maksim Illarionov, 23, of State College, Dmitriy Litvinov, 25, of Bellefonte, and Anatoliy Veretnov, 28, of Bellefonte are charged with multiple counts of robbery, simple assault, criminal mischief, theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy.
The jury listened to the second half of the recording from the events of the night of March 3, 2010 when the three men were arrested. The jury listened up until Alexei Semionov, the fourth co-defendant in the case until he pleaded guilty earlier this year, was arrested after breaking into a home garage and stealing car chains and a garage door opener.
The audio recording detailed the planning and the failure of the attempted robbery of Uncle Chen’s Chinese Restaurant, 430 E. Calder Way, as well as the plans to rob a home near Hillcrest Avenue and Glenn Road, where Semionov was arrested. The informant identified the people in the audio clip as himself, Illarionov, Litvinov and Semionov.
After Semionov was arrested, the informant and Litvinov drove away from the scene, calling Illarionov soon enough to get out of the house he was currently robbing, according to the informant. The informant said soon after they called Illarionov, Litvinov got a call from Semionov’s cell phone, and Litvinov said he thought Semionov had told on the others.
The informant also said that Illarionov told him and Litvinov to go to the East College Avenue residence where they stashed stolen items, such as jewelry, and take stolen items out of there. The informant also said Litvinov was worried about getting certain firearms out of the residence.
Once Illarionov met up with the informant and Litvinov in the informant’s car on the Penn State campus, Illarionov told the informant to drive to his South Allen Street residence thinking the police wouldn’t know about that residence, according to the informant. Police were waiting at the South Allen Street residence where they handcuffed the informant and Litvinov and eventually Illarionov when police caught him after he tried to run away, according to the informant.
During the cross examination of the informant by Jonathan Sobel, Litvinov’s attorney, Sobel asked the informant if he committed any of the robberies the defendants are accused of committing. The informant said no to committing any of those robberies.
The day began with Illarionov addressing Centre County President Judge Thomas Kistler directly, asking for him to allow his attorney Daniel Nelson to be released as his defense, citing irreconcilable differences with Nelson.
Illarionov told the judge that often Nelson would let a witness leave the stand without asking him the questions Illarionov wanted him to ask. Illarionov also made a point to say he has not at any point had the intention of elongating the trial process.
Kistler denied the request, saying that differences are inherent between attorney and client and that he has not seen enough friction between them that would imply Illarionov isn’t being properly defended.
The trial continues this afternoon.
