Lod man charged with killing 2-year-old after run-ins with child’s aunt
Prosecution says Effi Sayonov, 35, previously questioned over lewd pictures sent to sister of mother of toddler Ilai Kirushin, confessed to killing, albeit due to voices in his head
A 35-year-old Lod man was charged Sunday with stabbing a toddler to death in broad daylight in a sordid plot to exact revenge on the child’s aunt, prosecutors said Sunday.
Effi Sayonov, 35, was indicted in Lod District Court with the aggravated murder of 2-year-old Ilai Kirushin, who was stabbed to death in front of a grocery store in the city on December 28, while the child’s mother, Katrina Kirushin, shopped inside.
Sayonov, who had previously been questioned in connection with pictures of a sexual nature that were sent to Katrina Kirushin’s sister Ilana Brikman, was arrested the same day.
In a request to the court that he be held in custody pending the outcome of a trial, the state prosecution wrote that Sayonov had admitted to killing the child, and that he claimed voices in his head caused him to do so.
According to the indictment, Sayonov met Brikman when she came to an electronics store where Sayonov worked to buy a screen protector for her phone several months before the murder.
She did not purchase anything that day, which upset Sayonov, who called her a “difficult customer” and an epithet for a non-Jew. She returned to the store the following day to complain to the owner about Sayonov’s behavior.
In September, Brikman filed a complaint with police after an unsolicited picture of a man’s genitals was sent to her phone from an unknown number. Sayonov came up as a possible suspect in the investigation and was questioned by the police.
In November, Sayonov approached Brikman when she returned to the store and asked her to request the investigation be dropped, giving her a note with his ID number and the case file number on it.
About a week before the murder, he saw Brikman walking with her sister Katrina and nephew Ilai and asked her to return the note, which she said she would do, according to the charge sheet.
At some point after that, according to the prosecution, Sayonov decided to take revenge on Brikman and began carrying around a knife.
On December 28, he spied Kirushin walking with her son Ilya, in a stroller, accompanied by a friend, who was not named in the indictment, and her small daughter, also in a stroller. He went to his car for the knife, and followed them as they walked to a corner grocery.
Kirushin went into the store, leaving the friend outside to watch the kids. Sayonov then approached the friend and asked which of the children was Katrina’s, at which point he pulled out his knife and stabbed Ilai Kirushin four times in the chest and head.
He was rushed to a hospital but declared dead.
Shortly after the killing, Lod Mayor Yair Ravivo said the suspect had been “mentally disturbed,” and had claimed to hear voices.
However, the charge sheet also noted that Sayonov had weighed the matter and thought it through.
The public broadcaster Kan reported in December that Sayonov’s parents had tried to hospitalize him due to his deteriorating mental condition, without success.
The Ynet news website quoted Sayonov’s attorney calling the incident a “terrible tragedy” but claiming that his client was “mentally disturbed, with a distorted view of reality.”
The Times of Israel Community.