The Vilnius resident who made killing people his profession received no good news: he made a fatal mistake after a double murder

The serial killer tried his luck in court

Can a mercenary who has killed 14 people in his life be expected to be pardoned and, for the 13 murders committed, have been sentenced to the legal maximum penalty of life imprisonment?

The law establishes this right when the offender sentenced to life imprisonment has been in prison for at least 20 years. If the prisoner can show that he has made a substantial recovery, the court can impose a limited sentence of 5 to 10 years in prison, after which he can be released.

Valerijus Januškevičius from Vilnius, who was sentenced to life imprisonment seven times for killing 13 people, also tried to seize this opportunity. The 64-year-old murderer is currently serving his sentence at the Pravienišk whoses Prison, whose administration intervened by submitting an application to the Kaunas Regional Court.

The murderer hired for the court hearing was not brought in, he attended it remotely. Since 1998, the leader of a gang involved in robberies and murders during the time of the arrests has admitted in court that he has no hope of being released alive.

“It just came to our attention then. I have diabetes, it is an insidious disease, my father died from it. I am planning for the near future, not in 10 years,” said the serial killer.

The bloody past trapped and behind bars: met the victim’s brother

V. Januškevičius, 64, said that exchanging his life sentence for a lighter prison sentence would allow him to work.

The criminal, who killed 14 people in his life, testified that he is currently out of work, living in poverty and not even having anything to buy a television. His wife and parents have passed away and his daughter is raising two disabled children who, due to lack of funds, cannot come from the capital to visit him in Pravieniškės.

So after his sentence was commuted and he got a job, he could send some of the money he earned to his daughter so she would have something to visit him with.

In court, V. Januškevičius indicated the reason why he is not allowed to work at this time. According to the killer, the man in charge of the works has said that his brother was murdered by V. Januškevičius, so he will never have the opportunity to work in the production area in his life.

“A person would feel uncomfortable working with me in a workshop,” said V. Januškevičius.

He has never worked for 22 years.

According to the material presented by the administration of the Pravieniškės Correctional Center, the criminal who committed the horrible crimes and killed people for money does not pose any major problem behind bars. He only broke the rules twice, he received a penalty.

“The convict, when communicating with the administration staff, is courteous, discreet and communicative. Relations with other prisoners are normal, there is no authority among the prisoners.
It ensures that the manifestations of the criminal subculture are not tolerated or respected.

Stay in touch with a friend. Dead wife and parents. The relationship with the brother is broken, the relationship with the daughter is weak. Before his incarceration, he had completed secondary education, was not studying at the time of serving his sentence and was not employed, ”says the document addressed to the court.

It is also stated that after his transfer to Pravieniškės, V. Januškevičius asked to be given a job, but was unable to do so due to lack of vacancies. In July of this year, he repeatedly applied for a job, claiming that he wanted to work.

However, in the context of these circumstances, attention is drawn to the fact that since the case of the convict in 2011. February 19 Characteristics show that the job was offered to the convict, but V. Januškevičius refused the job for low salary reasons. Thus, the convicted person, having a real opportunity to get a job and earn an income, rejected this opportunity, although the convicted person has been jointly and severally sentenced for a civil action, “said the panel of judges of the Kaunas Regional Court.

The murderer’s wishes cannot take precedence over the public interest.

“Although the convict describes his personality as a non-confrontational and appreciative ability to resolve disagreements in constructive and socially acceptable ways, there have been episodes in his life when he has lost his temper. The risk of repeated violent behavior is high.

The convict considers only some of the consequences of his actions, tends to trust the probability of success, focuses only on short-term decisions, ignoring long-term consequences. The convicted person is aware of the need to respect established laws and regulations, but in the past they have not always been able to stop their behavior in this regard.

All the aforementioned circumstances give rise to doubt of the sufficient progress of the convicted person and allow to conclude that in the case under review, the purpose of the sentence will not be fulfilled by replacing the life sentence with a prison sentence, ”said the Kaunas Regional Court.

According to the court, although V. Januškevičius has managed to reduce the risk of criminal behavior, this development does not allow us to believe that once released he will not commit new crimes and society will be protected from such a dangerous person.

“The desire of a convict to be released cannot prevail over the public interest to be protected from criminal acts,” the court held.

The first murder was committed before coming of age

V. Januškevičius from Vilnius began his murderous career at the age of only 16. For robbing and killing a person, he was sentenced to a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

While behind bars, Januusevičius met several prisoners who later became the nucleus of a group of bandits. He was released at age 23.

V. Januškevičius, who acted in 1992-1998, is alleged to have committed extremely serious crimes: he carried out armed robberies, kidnapped people and demanded ransom, and finally participated in contract killings.

Probably the most common crime committed by V. Januškevičius was in May 1995 in Vilnius, when the banker Rimantas Grainis was blown up near the Government House. The explosive was mounted under the businessman’s car and exploded when he started driving. R. Grainys died a few days after sustaining extremely serious injuries.

V. Januškevičius got caught in law enforcement in 1998, when he committed a double murder, shot a businessman sitting in a car and his wife made a fatal mistake. The killer took the victim’s cell phone and called someone after inserting his SIM card.

That was enough for forensic criminals to follow in the hired killer’s footsteps. V. Januškevičius was charged with killing 13 people and sentenced to seven times the highest penalty: life imprisonment.

He shook the name of the leader of the gang of assassins, mentioned that he was only the “technical director”

When requesting the commutation of the sentence, the murderer interpreted the facts in his own way, mentioned that he had decided to end his criminal career and, voluntarily, informed law enforcement about his crimes. Apparently, the criminals had arrested him, but they did not suspect how many people he had managed to kill.

“If he had been completely silent and eluded, there would have been no Kryukov case, the Grain bombing or the Buravtsov case,” said the criminal, who killed 14 people in his lifetime.

V. Januškevičius tried to downplay his role in the gang that killed people for money, saying that he was just a “technical director” and that completely different people ran the gang. He was apparently convinced by the prosecutor to take on the role of leader, as the real leaders at the time were giving testimony against the Vilnius Brigade and had become very useful witnesses as a result.