'I did not want to admit that I am a murderer': Mikhail Efremov testified in court

The Presnensky Court of Moscow on Monday, August 31, heard the testimony of actor Mikhail Efremov. He is accused of being the culprit of a “drunk road accident” on June 8, 2020, which claimed the life of a person: as a result of a collision with Efremov’s jeep, courier Sergei Zakharov, who was driving a Lada van, was killed, writes Air force.

At the meeting, Efremov said that in the first 31 hours after the accident he recorded a video with a confession, because “from every angle” he heard about his guilt. He accused the journalists of falsification and doubted that he himself was driving. Two witnesses came to the hearing on August XNUMX to testify in support of this version - a buyer of smuggled cigarettes and a former participant in the Donbass conflict, who allegedly happened to be nearby at the time of the accident.

“My fault is drunkenness. But I’m not going to take all the blame.”

“I already vaguely remember this day,” Efremov began. According to him, by the time of the accident he had already drunk “about a bottle of vodka” and either before or after he took a taxi to buy beer. He remembers the trip to the Ulysses bar, about which the media wrote, in flashes: “I probably went. I often went to this bar.”

The actor gave testimony, hunched over and almost without taking his eyes off the table.

“Maybe I gave in myself, maybe I was pulled into the car. It’s better not to take [this testimony] into account, because I was already very drunk. I don't understand where the drugs come from. Don't know. I had parties three days before, but I don’t know, I didn’t have any desire for it, I can’t say anything,” Efremov said at the court hearing.

The actor’s next memory is the investigator’s office. His friends picked him up from the interrogation and took him to bed. And in the morning, Efremov learned that the courier Sergei Zakharov had died in the hospital.

For a long time, says Efremov, he was not himself, the first few days he woke up, watched programs in which the details of the accident were discussed, and fell asleep again.

“In my memory, there were no accidents that took three months to sort out with pleasure,” the actor complained. According to him, it was media pressure that was the reason why he recorded a video admitting guilt.

“A person with a hangover is nervous. I was hungover for three days. From all the TVs, radios, from all the irons they said that I did it. Then I saw that I was saying this on the recording too. But there I say that it’s not me. There you can see from the lips that “not” was cut out, this is said by one of the best sound engineers - my wife, the golden ears of Russia.”

A few days after the accident, Efremov, in his words, “moved away.”

“I still didn’t want to admit that I was a killer. I wanted to make contact with the Zakharovs. I’m sure I’ll find contact with the Zakharovs, I’ll talk to them. And I offered them condolences, but the journalists cut it out,” he said.

“There is undoubtedly my fault here - it’s drunkenness. But I’m not going to take all the blame for the Great October Revolution,” Efremov finished his speech.

Representatives of the relatives of the deceased courier Zakharov tried to clarify why, during a conversation with a psychiatrist, Efremov admitted that he had taken drugs, but now he insists that he did not deal with prohibited substances.

“I spoke in a way that pleased the psychiatrist. “In the same way - as I’m talking to you now, so that you will be pleased,” he retorted.

“You said that the mark on your neck was left by a belt from the passenger seat, which you threw over your neck and put behind the seat. Could you show us how it works?” - asked the lawyer of the son of the deceased, Irina Khairullina.

“I couldn’t! My shooting day costs too much!” - Efremov abruptly interrupted her.

The victim's lawyer Anna Butyrina tried to question the actor about the testimony he gave during the investigation. But in response, Efremov first reminded the defender that he was twice as old and that she should show respect, and then refused to answer her questions altogether.

But he still answered one of the questions.

“If you don’t plead guilty, why did you transfer the money to your relatives?” - asked Butyrina.

"I have already mentioned. I have a very developed sense of guilt. I feel very sorry for the victims. I want to help them and I will help them when this is all over and you disappear from my life,” said Efremov.

The lawyers, in turn, continued to ask questions, which the actor predictably refused to answer: “Did you notice anything paranormal at the scene of the accident?” and “How much does your shooting day cost?”

Judge Elena Abramova tried to find out if there were any memories of the collision with another car, but the actor could not remember this part of the day.

“So you can’t even rule out that you weren’t in the car at all?” - asked the judge. “I don’t rule it out,” the actor replied. “How did you and your car get to the scene of an accident separately,” Abramova was surprised. From Efremov’s answers to her questions, it turned out that by the time of the accident the actor had been drinking for several days.

After this, the prosecution asked to read out the testimony that Efremov gave during the investigation. The interrogation report states that the actor started drinking at least a day in advance because of an Orthodox holiday - on June 7, he celebrated Trinity as a believer.

In the same place, in the materials of the interrogation, it is said about a stub with hashish found in the car. Efremov, judging by the protocols, then said that he found him in his pocket after the events of early May, which he does not remember. Wanting to get rid of the butt, he threw it into the ashtray in the car.

Efremov explained the contradiction with the current position by psychological pressure. “This was said at Malakhov’s, this was said at Skabeeva’s. I said what society expected from me. And then I began to wonder if this society would be too much,” he said.

“Why did you refuse a medical examination?” - asked the prosecutor.

“Out of a sense of false nobility,” Efremov explained.

On the subject: Compensation without compensation and rudeness: the trial of Efremov turned into a tragicomedy

Recover memory and explore windshield

The actor's defense is trying to prove that he was in the passenger seat and someone else was driving the car. This time, lawyer Elman Pashayev petitioned for a biological examination of the car’s windshield. According to the defense lawyer, the examination could determine which side the actor was on during the accident: “Biology only takes us one day!”

During the investigation, experts found biological traces of Mikhail Efremov on the airbag, which was detonated from the impact in the driver's seat. However, the defense explains this by the fact that after the accident, Efremov climbed into the car for documents and could leave genetic material on the pillow.

Efremov also asked for a new study: “Your Honor, in the old days the court fulfilled the last wish of a person sentenced to death. I was sentenced to execution on June 9 [the day after the accident] through all channels. This is my last wish, please fulfill it, do an examination of the windshield to see if there are traces of biological substances there... I have never driven while intoxicated...”

Judge Elena Abramova refused the actor. Then the defense filed a new motion - to send Efremov to the Serbsky National Medical Research Center for Psychiatry and Narcology to restore his memory.

“He doesn’t remember anything! In the part that will help restore what was there. We do not dispute his sanity, his condition. Just so that he can reconstruct how he sat in the pub, did he move to the passenger seat…” urged lawyer Pashayev.

The lawyer of the victims, Alexander Dobrovinsky, noticed that during the investigation a psychological and psychiatric examination had already been carried out.

“And it was carried out, which is important, 10 days after the accident, on June 18... He indicated that he was driving a technically sound vehicle, heading in the direction of New Arbat... That is, Efremov’s condition at the time of June 18 suggests that he remembered [ circumstances of the accident]…” said Dobrovinsky.

Judge Abramova again refused to defend Efremov and the court moved on to questioning new witnesses - a buyer of smuggled cigarettes and a former fighter who fought in eastern Ukraine.

“Let me talk!”

Witness Tevan Badasyan told the court that he met lawyer Pashayev just three days before the court session: the witness allegedly took the initiative himself, because he could not look at the trial with indifference.

“Why didn’t we contact you earlier? To the investigator? - asked the prosecutor.

"Did not want! “I don’t trust him,” Badasyan snapped.

According to the witness, from time to time he changes cities - for some time he lived in Astrakhan, Kazan, Crimea, but since the beginning of 2020 he has been in Moscow. On the evening of June 8, at about ten o'clock in the evening, he went to buy cigarettes at a familiar point of sale in the city center.

— I ended up in Plotnikov Lane. Mrs. Abramova...

“Your Honor,” corrected Judge Elena Abramova.

- Your Honor, I am a smoker and buy cigarettes in this area. They sell contraband there, what am I going to hide? I call there in advance and come. The streets are empty, there are no cars, there is no one. A man was walking 15 steps in front of me. There were no people, I walked and observed. This man caught up with the car. He walked over, opened the back door, and sat down.

The witness does not know what kind of man he was and why he got into the car, which, according to its description, resembles Yefremov's car, but he is sure that it was not its owner, but someone younger.

Badasyan could not remember the place where the smuggled tobacco was sold. He did not even mention the number that he allegedly called the cigarette seller in advance: “They are smuggled, why would I call them?!”

Attempts by the victims' lawyers to interrogate Badasyan and catch him in contradictions ended in a skirmish. Efremov began to stand up for the witness, but Badasyan was not reassured: “Let me talk! Mikhail Olegovich, sit down! Just mind your own business!” - the witness ordered the lawyer of the deceased’s family in a raised tone.

“Why are you reacting this way?” - Judge Abramova tried to calm him down.

The witness responded with indignation at the unfair, in his opinion, investigation and the behavior of potential witnesses.

- Who was it, the one whose husband is in Germany, an illusionist there, who first saw and then didn’t see?! — Badasyan asked not entirely clear rhetorical questions.

—What are you reporting now? — the judge asked patiently.

- They were shown on the news!

The witness ended his story with the news that he joined some international group to investigate the Efremov case, whose members wrote a letter to Hollywood to inform the American film industry about what was happening.

In parting, Badasyan turned to the audience bench, where he obviously expected to see the relatives of the deceased Zakharov or their representatives, and said emotionally: “And I want to tell you, victims, you’re just hype!”

A witness with a Donbass past

The second witness for Efremov's defense was a thin middle-aged man named Andrei Gaev. At one of the previous sessions, the court heard the testimony of his friend Alexander Kobets. Then Kobets said that on the evening of the accident he met with a friend not far from the accident site. They allegedly saw the moment of the accident. Kobets insisted that before his eyes, Efremov got out of the car on the right, passenger side.

Subsequently, from Kobts’ story it turned out that shortly before the incident the friends were drinking. In addition, it turned out that the witness has serious vision problems - he cannot see in one eye.

Now the actor’s lawyers have summoned Kobts’ friend Gaev to court, who immediately stood up for his comrade.

“This lawyer with glasses,” Gaev pointed to lawyer Dobrovinsky, “he introduced him to the whole country... He is far from an alcoholic and not blind. He saved my life."

Gaev told the court that he had been friends with Kobets all his life since kindergarten and participated in hostilities with him: “Well, we fought together in Donbass from 2014 to 2018.”

The Russian service of the BBC discovered a man with a very similar appearance and a completely identical last name, first name and patronymic in the “Peacemaker” database - an unofficial resource that contains, among other things, information about fighters fighting on the side of the separatists in the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine .

According to Gaev, he did not want to testify for a long time, because he was on vacation in Anapa. In addition, the witness said, after being interrogated in court, the police came to the mother of his friend Kobets with an unclear purpose and asked about her son.

The events of June 8, as presented by Gaev, look like this: they drank beer, then walked along the street and suddenly heard the roar of an impact. Kobets allegedly ran to the Lada, in which the courier Zakharov was, and Gaev himself, due to a sore leg, was unable to start running, and at his own pace headed towards Efremov’s car. At that moment, the witness says, he saw a figure on the passenger side.

“The man came out from there. His hair was tousled and he seemed to be scratching his neck. And I look at him as if, but he’s either drunk or sleepy, it’s unclear. Well, it looks like you got drunk, they woke you up. You woke up, you want to lie around, but it’s as if they woke you up and said, “Go get to work,” Gaev described the man who got out of the car.

“I look at him for two seconds... I understand that his face is familiar... He just stood there and became inflated. I’m just used to seeing him - well, sort of with slicked [hair], but not down. Then I realize that I know him, then the next second I understand that this is an actor, and after another two seconds that this is Efremov. Then Sasha [Kobets] comes up to me and says: “Let’s get out of here, some guy there swore at me.” And we went to the ABC of Taste. Only I didn’t want beer and bought an energy drink,” said the witness.

In the driver's seat, Gaev said, something was stirring under the airbag, but what it was, he did not consider. The prosecutor did not manage to get from him any intelligible details of what he saw in the car.

During the interrogation, other circumstances emerged: it turned out that the witness not only participated in the military conflict, but also had numerous problems with the law.

— Have you previously been brought to administrative responsibility? — the prosecutor asked.

- I was attracted.

- How many times?

- I didn’t count.

According to Gaev, he was fined several times for drinking alcohol in the wrong places. He could not remember all the episodes of communication with the police, because “well, from the age of 14 you start to behave hooligans.”

“Then you beat someone and they send you away... In Rostov-on-Don, I was also traveling once from Donbass... There are such Rostov employees there. I also drank and they took me away because they looked like he was coming from the Donbass, he was rich, so they could give me money...” he complained.

The prosecution, in turn, was interested in a specific episode.

— Are you driving a car? - asked the prosecutor.

- Deprived of rights.

- For what?

- I rammed a bus.

— Have you been brought to administrative responsibility for refusing a medical examination when you were suspected of alcohol intoxication?

- Well, yes, there, I have to undergo an examination, that’s when I was fined and my license was taken away.

From further interrogation, it turned out that Gaev spent three years in a colony and was released from it in 2012. This happened after he “did a little smoke” during his divorce from his wife.

“Speak Russian,” the judge asked.

- Well, I raised my hand to her a little.

On the subject: 'I am no more': Efremov for the first time commented on the terrible accident that he arranged in Moscow

“There was only the driver. I took him by the hand and sat him in the flowerbed."

At the end of the hearing, the prosecution asked to question another witness - a man named Ilya Babikov. Efremov’s lawyers objected to this.

⁃ Why didn’t the investigator interrogate him during the investigation if he was a witness to the accident? — lawyer Elizaveta Sharogorodskaya asked.

⁃ I cannot be responsible for the actions of the investigator,” the prosecutor noted.

Babikov is a 25-30 year old man who claims that he and his friend were the first to run up to Efremov’s jeep.

“A friend ran up from the driver’s door. I checked the other doors for victims. They weren't there, there was only the driver. I took him by the hand and took him away from the roadway and put him in a flowerbed,” said the witness.

The prosecutor asked him if he saw this driver in the hall. The man pointed to Efremov.

⁃ Why do you avert your eyes? — the actor turned reproachfully to the man.

⁃ I'm shy.

Lawyer Pashayev began questioning the witness in detail. The defender was interested in everything ranging from which side the Lada was lying on after the accident to the number of minutes that the man communicated with his friend before the accident. The meaning of some questions was unclear.

— How exactly was Efremov driving? How many traffic police officers responded to the incident? How many outfits? Why do you remember which lane the car was in, but don’t remember anything about the other questions? - the lawyer was surprised. — What do you do?

- A doctor. “I’m a resuscitator,” the witness answered.

- How do you treat people with such a memory?

The witness did not provide assistance to the wounded courier Zakharov. According to him, he approached the Lada when it had already been turned over on its wheels. At that moment, Zakharov, according to the man, was conscious: someone asked his name and he answered: “Sergei.”

“Who told you to contact the Investigative Committee? Nobody? Then how do you know how to write a statement?” - Pashayev did not give up.

According to Babikov, at the end of June he recognized himself in a video from the scene of an accident, in which the victims’ lawyers were looking for witnesses, and wrote to a representative of Zakharov’s family on Instagram. The lawyer interviewed the man and said that his testimony might be needed.

“Then why did you need to write a statement to the Investigative Committee?!” - Pashayev was surprised.

“There was a possibility that my testimony would not be needed. But then it became clear that they were needed,” the witness replied.

As a result, Babikov turned to the UK only on July 31. Soon after that, the witness says, an investigator came to his work and asked him to tell him about the circumstances of the accident.

The parties began to watch a video from the scene of the accident, in the frames of which Babikov had previously recognized himself.

“Here he comes running from the left side! And they said it was on the right! Have you put this on record? Your Honor, has this been entered into the protocol?!” - Pashayev was inspired.

“You can’t even imagine how detailed we keep our protocols. You will be ashamed later,” Judge Abramova responded to this.

A few minutes later it turned out that there was still no contradiction between the witness's words and the video recording, and he was finally allowed to go home.

“I recognized it from gestures from a movie”

The court called the last witness to testify at just after ten o'clock in the evening. Svetlana Nabokina works in a bistro not far from Smolensky Passage, which has been serving takeout food during the pandemic. The windows of the establishment overlook Smolenskaya Square.

The staff was preparing to close when there was a loud bang, Nabokina said. She shot a video, which was then distributed on social networks and TV channels.

“One car was absolutely an accordion. The white car [Lada with Zakharov driving] was lying on its side. Everyone ran there,” Nabokina recalled.

According to her, two guys approached a black jeep that turned around from the impact. One of them began helping the driver out of the car.

“He was wearing, as I understand it, it was a jacket, because when you raise your hand, you [can see] your shoulder, you can’t get it anywhere. And dark pants, dark shoes,” Nabokina described the driver. According to her, she learned that it was Efremov from the news after she returned home.

Then, the witness says, she learned that Efremov denied guilt and decided to contact the victims’ lawyer Dobrovinsky and wrote to him on Instagram.

⁃ How did you understand that it was Efremov? - lawyer Pashayev returned the witness to the events of June 8.

⁃ From the back.

⁃ What, on the back of the head ?!

⁃ Even the Statue of Liberty can be recognized from the back!

⁃ Yes, I saw your video, I’m two meters tall in it! - Efremov intervened.

⁃ Efremov, wait,” lawyer Pashayev interrupted his client. “How, how did you recognize him?”

⁃ By gestures.

⁃ Well, bullshit,” the actor decided to participate again.

⁃ Efremov, shut up. How could you recognize him by his gestures? Where did you see them?

⁃ To the cinema! He was playing a priest there.

⁃ There were no such gestures,” Efremov drawled, apparently referring to the film “Election Day,” in which his character pretended to be a priest.

This ended the meeting.

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• The accident occurred on June 8 at 21:44 near house 3 on Smolenskaya Square in Moscow. Mikhail Efremov, who was driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee, drove into the oncoming lane and crashed into a Lada car.
• After the death of a Lada driver injured in an accident case is under investigation under clause "a" of part 4 of article 264 of the Criminal Code ("Violation of traffic rules committed in a state of intoxication and resulting in the death of a person by negligence"). The punishment for her is from 5 to 12 years in prison.
• Efremov at the time of the accident, in which the driver of another car died, was able to not only alcohol but also drug intoxication.
• The next hearing in the case of Mikhail Efremov in the Presnensky court turned out the most emotional from the beginning of the process - the relatives of the driver Mikhail Zakharov, who died in an accident with the participation of the actor, spoke for the first time. Lawyers for his family filed claims against Efremov for compensation for moral damage.
• Other road accidents involving stars that killed people, read in our material.

Read also on ForumDaily:

'The Efremov case' in Hollywood: does American justice spare celebrities

Not only Beirut: 11 terrible human-induced disasters

The price of luck: how people who received a huge inheritance quickly lost it

Alcohol, drugs, lawyer's failures: how is the case of Mikhail Efremov, who made a fatal accident

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