Killer sentenced to life in prison for teen’s slaying

Nikolai Doroshev was sentenced on Wednesday in Beersheba District Court to life imprisonment, plus 10 years, for the rape and murder of a teenage girl.

On September 23, 2009, 15-year-old Leah Drinkin spent the evening at a party with friends in her hometown of Ashkelon. According to testimony given to the police at the time, after drinking alcohol at the party, she was seen leaving the party with Doroshev, 11 years her senior, with whom she was previously acquainted. Her body was discovered the following day in a thicket near Nitzanim beach outside Ashkelon after her parents had notified police that she had not returned from the party. The following day Doroshev was arrested, and he subsequently confessed to and reconstructed the crime.

At his remand hearing the day after his arrest, Doroshev, a divorced father of one, said that Drinkin had passed out intoxicated in his car when he pulled over and began to grope her before raping her. Drinkin awoke, and when she screamed and threatened to report him to police, Doroshev claimed that he panicked and squeezed her throat, choking her until she passed out. He then covered her body with sand and ran over her with his car. The medical examination showed sand and small stones in Drinkin’s lungs, indicating that she was still breathing when Doroshev covered her body.

At the sentencing on Thursday, judges Hani Slotki, Ruth Avida and Mordechai Levy ruled against concurrent prison terms for the rape and murder charges.

The judges also ruled that Doroshev must pay the Drinkin family NIS 180,000. “All the money in the world could never compensate the parents, the sister and the grandparents for the terrible loss that the defendant has caused,” wrote the judges in their ruling. “But in order to hopefully finance, even partially, family therapy to cope with terrible loss, we find it fitting to require the defendant to pay the mother, father and sister of the deceased this sum.”

Drinkin’s family was satisfied with the ruling. Maria Drinkin, the victim’s mother, told Maariv on Thursday morning that “it comforts me to know that the judges did not take pity on him as often happens.” She added that she felt Doroshev deserves the death penalty, but as that is not an option in Israel, she felt that the prosecutors “did everything to ensure that the killer got what he deserved.”

She added that the sentencing comes at a very painful time for the family – had Leah lived, she would now be graduating high school with all of her friends. “I hope that the killer never again sees the light of day,” she added.