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Khabarovsk court on Tuesday sentenced an American citizen Christopher Garner to nine years in a maximum-security prison for murdering his wife’s relative during an argument over a one-room apartment.

The court found Garner, 30, an active duty U.S. Army technology specialist who had served in Iraq and Kuwait, guilty of the killing of Alexander Kaminsky, 56, an uncle of Garner’s wife Svetlana, in September 2006.

The Garners arrived in Khabarovsk to attend the funeral of Svetlana’s aunt. According to the aunt’s last will, Svetlana had to inherit a one-room apartment.

Kaminsky was dissatisfied with this fact and initiated a quarrel, threatening Svetlana with an axe. Defending his wife, Garner killed Kaminsky with a steel rope. The Garners hid the body of the murdered relative in a bag and dumped it 400 kilometers away.

The couple then flew to Moscow where they decided to come to US Embassy with admittance of murder before turning themselves in to police.

During the trial the prosecutors insisted that Garner should receive 11 years in prison. The court ruled a 9-year sentence.

Garner’s defense said that they intended to appeal the ruling. “We consider Garner’s actions as self-defense since he was protecting his wife, mother of his three children,” Garner’s advocate Viktor Kobzar said, The Kommersant reported. Svetlana faced no charges.


From Kommersant on-line and Vesti.Ru