39-year-old Antoineta Todorova was beaten to death after a drinking binge on January 12, 2018 in Haskovo. The victim’s 23-year-old friend, Borislav Valkov, was accused of intentional murder in a particularly painful and cruel way. The man suffers from bipolar affective disorder, for which he is also retired. The drama took place in an apartment on the fifth floor of block no. 2-4 on Shteryu Vaptsarov street in the Lyuben Karavelov neighborhood.
Antoineta Todorova lived with her boyfriend in her apartment in Haskovo. She was unemployed. She relied entirely on Borislav’s pension: “They both drank a lot and regularly, constantly quarreled, parted and reconciled,” said people familiar with the couple’s life. The special relationship between the two – Antoinette’s drunkenness and Valkov’s mental health fluctuations led to a change in the man’s social communication. He rarely met with friends and acquaintances, did not often leave the house, withdrew and communicated in a narrower circle.
On the fateful date, Dimitar Zhelyazkov, one of Valkov’s friends, called the Haskovlia woman and said that she would see him. After being invited to order, Dimitar bought a 700 gram bottle of vodka, soda and fruit along the way. Meanwhile, Antonietta had been drinking beer since morning and when the guest arrived in the evening, they had drunk one hundred grams of brandy.
After the guest arrived, he poured the vodka into glasses. Valkov drank about 150 grams. At 11 pm, Todorova played music. She also brought in an extra speaker to amplify the music. Borislav objected so that they would not make noise at a late hour. His girlfriend stood up and started insulting him, calling him “trash”. The bickering between the two continued, and as she mopped the spilled tobacco off the floor, Antoinette kicked the seated Borislav in the face, whose prosthetic mouth was dislodged and several healthy teeth rattled.
“Filthy dirt, look what you’ve done to me!” cried the landlord and went to wash himself in the kitchen. There he saw that his prosthesis was damaged, he angrily slammed it on the floor and it broke. The enraged man returned to the living room, pulled Todorova sitting on the sofa and dragged her towards the dark corridor. There he slammed the woman against the front door. Antoinette fell to the floor and Borislav shouted to get out of his apartment and go to sleep wherever he wanted. Then he started kicking the victim who fell to the ground. The strong blows hit the woman’s head and face. He also broke her rib, kicked her in the stomach and in her thighs. Todorova tried to defend herself with her hands, but her strong blows kept raining down on her body until their guest felt her beatings and she got up to tear them apart. “What are you doing, what are these things,” Zhelyazkov asked. “My head hurts, something broke,” the beaten woman moaned from the floor.
Dimitar left and shortly after Valkov turned on the lights in the corridor and his girlfriend got up and went to bed. Borislav returned to the living room, finished his vodka and then went to bed alone in another room.
In the morning, the 39-year-old woman woke up at 9:30. Then the bully saw the dried blood on his victim’s lips and the bruises on her victim’s cheeks. Antonietta complained of pains in her head and face. She finished the rest of her beer and lay down on the couch in the living room. At noon she told Borislav that she was ill and she continued to lie down on the sofa, while the man continued to drink vodka.
At about 17:00, Valkov woke up Todorova, again said that she was not feeling well, vomited on the floor and fell asleep again. Four and a half hours later, at 9.30 pm, Borislav woke up Antoinette again. He could barely speak and also incoherently, making strange noises. This worried the man, but he did not rush to seek help.
He did this until 30 minutes after midnight on January 14th. He dialed the emergency number 112, from where he was connected directly to the Haskovo emergency service. “We got drunk here and threw tantrums,” Valkov told the nurse on duty. The operator later explained to investigators that because of the man’s slurred speech, he had decided he was a drunk drunk. The nurse recommended the use of private transport or a taxi for the help of Borislav Emergency Medical Center, however, she thought that she had already been drinking, her girlfriend’s condition did not allow her to move on her own and he decided to go to bed.
At 8:30 on January 14, Borislav Valkov found that the woman he had beaten was dead
“The victim’s condition continued to deteriorate, because the blows to the jaw caused the so-called rotational head injury. It is characterized by a rupture of the blood vessels between the dura mater and the dura mater. This, in turn, leads to hemorrhaging and hematomas in various parts of the brain. This also leads to an increase in the pressure of the braincase. Respiratory and cardiac activities become progressively more difficult. Thus the victim has fallen unconscious. When the blood collection has reached the critical level of 120 cubic cm, the regulatory functions of the brain were completely suppressed. As a result of these factors, cardiac and respiratory failure occurred,” writes the expert opinion of forensic pathologist Dr. Hristo Elenski, later accepted by Themida.
The death was particularly painful for the victim, according to the expert opinion. The woman experienced extreme suffering and pain from the infliction of the blows to the slow “sinking” of her consciousness and the complete loss of her. Death was not instantaneous. It was long and painful, due to the slowly developing hematoma in the brain, which gradually suppressed breathing and heart activity. “The process of death lasted more than a day. During this period Antonietta’s conditions progressively and painfully worsened for her”, the report continues.
An extensive forensic psychiatric examination also dismisses the possibility that Borislav committed the fatal beating in a physiologically affected state. The five doctors who conducted the study confirmed Valkov’s mental illness. However, according to the experts, at the time of the crime and subsequently at the time of their examination, Borislav was in remission, which means that he was aware of his deeds and deeds, for which he is subject to criminal liability.
Experts indicated that between January 12 and 14, 2018, haskovlia had no qualitative changes in thinking, perceptions, emotions, and volition to support a conclusion of mania or depression. The view that the aggression shown was a symptom of volitional instability and low control was also confirmed.
10-year grids under initial strict regime
The trial against Borislav Valkov began in June last year in the Haskovo district court. At the trial hearing, it was announced that the defendant wanted the case to be dealt with summarily. Valkov agreed that some pundits and pundits would not testify. Themida granted his request to convene a total of 8 experts for two psychiatric examinations and the coroner Dr. Hristo Elenski. According to the court ruling, four witnesses will be questioned in the next session.
Borisslav said he pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. His thesis is that he didn’t intend to kill his girlfriend. He did not deny the paternity of his actions described in the indictment, but claimed that they were the result of an affection. According to the defendant, he was provoked by Antonietta’s aggressive behavior. He stated that he had partial memory loss of her behavior on the fatal evening.
10 years in prison in the initial severe regime. This convicted Themis in the first instance on October 28 this year. Due to the shortened proceedings, magistrates were forced to go below the established minimum of 15 years.
“No reasons have been established for isolating Borislav Valkov for the rest of his life”, is also written in the reasons for the sentence, which is not final. He can be challenged and protested before the Plovdiv Court of Appeal.
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