Seattle jury convicts man of killing 4 neighbors; trial moves to death penalty phase

Jury convicts man for killing neighbors in Wash.

SEATTLE — A Kirkland man was convicted Monday of slaughtering the family of a National Guard sergeant who was serving in Iraq, then burning down the house in an attempt to conceal the crime.

Now the jury must decide whether to impose the death penalty.

Conner Schierman, 28, was convicted of four counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of arson in the 2006 knifings of Sgt. Leonid Milkin’s wife, Olga Milkin, 28; their 5- and 3-year-old sons, Justin and Andrew; and Olga’s sister, Lyubov Botvina, a 24-year-old college student who lived at the house.

No clear motive ever emerged. Schierman moved in across the street less than three weeks earlier, and deputy King County prosecutor Scott O’Toole said the attack might have been sexually driven. Olga Milkin was found naked and her sister was partially clothed, but the women’s bodies showed no sign of sexual assault.

Schierman claimed to have had an alcoholic blackout, only to wake up in the Milkins’ home covered in blood with no idea of what happened.

Relatives of the victims wept and smiled as the verdict was announced but declined to comment.

“For the family, for them to have put their faith in the jury system, it’s gratifying,” O’Toole said.

There was no evidence that Schierman drank as much as he claimed that night, O’Toole said, and he made a sexual comment about the women to his sister before the attack.

Defense attorney James Conroy argued that Schierman’s blackout was real, someone else carried out the killings, and Schierman set fire to the home because he worried no one would believe his story.

Surveillance video from a nearby gas station showed Schierman buying gasoline just before the blaze was reported.

The penalty phase of the trial begins Thursday and is expected to last one to three weeks. Jurors, who took less than two days to return the guilty verdict, will be asked whether Schierman should be sentenced to death or to life in prison without release, the only other possible punishment.

Conroy said he hopes to show jurors that Schierman “is a good person. He always has been.” He indicated he plans to call 79 witnesses, including more than two dozen relatives, but prosecutors are asking the judge to limit that number to avoid redundant testimony.