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| Kiril Stoyanov (left) and Tsanko Petrunov (with bare head) were brought in handcuffs to the court |
With the hearing of witnesses, the case against proven recidivists Kiril Stoyanov (46 years old) and Tsanko Petrunov (44 years old), who are accused of the intentional murder of Lalko Zhurkov (55 years old), continued today, a reporter told Plovdiv24.bg.
The criminal act took place on July 7, 2021, in the area of the kindergarten next to Jumaya Mosque in Plovdiv. According to the state prosecution, Stoyanov and Petrunov inflicted more than 20 blows on the victim’s head, and the beating was filmed by security cameras and lasted about 10 minutes.
One perpetrator had a blood alcohol level of 3.51 and the other with 2.43. Both have been repeatedly convicted. Tsanko Petrunov has 8 convictions for theft and robbery, as well as for possession, and he was released from prison a year and a half ago.
A 13-year-old girl who was in the courtroom with her mother testified today. The student told how she became the object of sexual violence by the murdered Zhurkov.
“We were together with a boy and a girl in the kindergarten next to Jumayata. A drug addict came up to us, grabbed my hand and kissed it. Then he reached for my leg, tried to pull me and groped my buttocks until I managed to break away from him. The man with the bare head (recognized by the accused Tsanko Petrunov) saw all this and started choking him. There were other people and some of them stopped him and also called the police. The one with the bare head said, that if the police didn’t take measures and didn’t punish the drug addict, he would take them himself. A few days later I found out from the media that there had been a murder,” the 13-year-old girl told the court.
The officers of the “Criminal Police” sector, Yani Dzambov and Vladimir Sokolov, who responded to the report of a corpse in the city center, also gave evidence. They said that at the scene of the accident they found Tsanko Petrunov, whom they knew very well because of his numerous criminal activities. Tsanko stated that he slapped the homeless Lalko Zhurkov twice, and his friend, known by the nickname Kiro the Boxer, punched him several times in the head.
The law enforcement authorities preserved the crime scene, after which they went to search at Kiril Stoyanov’s address. They found out from another witness that the person in question threw something in a garbage can near his home and went home. The policemen found personal belongings of the murdered Zhurkov, among which was a card issued by the Municipality of Plovdiv for a street musician. They continued to knock on the door and shortly before they attempted to enter the apartment, Kiro Boxer opened the door. They took him to the district office, where he admitted that he had hit the homeless man Zhurkov.
The case against Stoyanov and Petrunov will continue on October 19 at 9:30 a.m. Then the witnesses who did not appear in the courtroom today must be heard, as well as the experts from the triple forensic medical examination.
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