LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A prosecutor told jurors Tuesday that a former Los Angeles Police Department civilian employee killed his wife and teenage son in their Van Nuys apartment to cash in on insurance policies and begin a new life with his girlfriend, while the man's attorney countered that the evidence points to his client being wrongly accused of murder.
Viktor Yuryevich Glukhovskiy -- who worked in the LAPD's Security Services Division -- is charged with the Dec. 26, 2018, killings of his wife, Natali, 39, and their 13-year-old son, Alex, who were each shot in the head in their beds in the family's second-floor apartment in the 13800 block of Oxnard Street.
The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of murder for financial gain, murder while lying in wait and multiple murders, along with allegations that Glukhovskiy personally and intentionally used and discharged a shotgun.
"This is a case about a family annihilated," Deputy District Attorney Dan Akemon told the downtown Los Angeles jury hearing the case against the 49-year-old defendant.
In his opening statement, the prosecutor said Glukhovskiy had a "dark secret" that he was in love with another woman, was "willing to murder" to be with her, and had been plotting the killings for months.
The deputy district attorney said Glukhovskiy left the apartment that morning, turned off his cell phone to try to conceal his whereabouts, circled back in his distinctive white Jeep that was seen on surveillance video, and changed his clothing and donned a hoodie and gloves after parking in the neighborhood.
Akemon told the panel that the gait of a hooded man who was seen on surveillance video walking outside the apartment complex early that morning is "identical" to the way the defendant is seen walking in surveillance footage subsequently taken in January 2019 at Hollywood Park Casino.
The prosecutor said the evidence would show that Glukhovskiy killed his two family members before driving to his job in downtown Los Angeles, where he showed up to work 15 minutes late and "acted like nothing happened."
Glukhovsiky called 911 after returning home late that night and "acted like a grieving husband and father" and then subsequently lied to police about the state of the couple's failing marriage and concealed his relationship with his girlfriend, according to the prosecutor.
Jurors will hear that Glukhovskiy and his girlfriend, who was from Ukraine and was living in Poland at the time, were engaged to be married while he was still married to his wife, Akemon told the panel, noting that the defendant sent messages to his girlfriend including one in which he wrote that she was "the only woman I care about."
Glukhovskiy filed a claim for two insurance policies worth more than $400,000 involving his wife and son after their deaths, according to the prosecutor.
He denied killing his wife or son when he was questioned again by LAPD detectives shortly before his arrest Feb. 1, 2019.
Defense attorney Greg Hoegee told jurors that he believes the evidence is "going to show that it's not Mr. Glukhovskiy," saying that he thinks it points to his client's innocence.
He noted that there was "blood everywhere" at the crime scene, and said police criminalists took samples from Glukhovskiy's vehicle.
"They didn't find anything that would tie Mr. Glukhovskiy to the crime scene," Hoegee said.
He said the prosecution is asking the jury to make inferences that are "not reasonable."
The defense lawyer said it was "not a reasonable inference" that his client was the one who committed the crime.
Glukhovskiy's attorney told the panel that he likes to look at the case as a "big, giant puzzle," telling jurors that the puzzle pieces "aren't there" or "just don't fit."
Glukhovskiy has remained behind bars since his arrest about 4 1/2 years ago. He could face a potential life prison term without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged.