The Doom of a Notorious Scoundrel: A Criminal Veteran's Failed Plea for Mercy

The heavy gavel has fallen, and the iron doors shall remain shut. The Sverdlovsk Regional Court, in its stern wisdom, has upheld the sentence of seventeen years of hard labour for one Andrey Ovchinnikov—known in the darker alleys as 'Ovchina.' The man, a relic of the city's most violent gangs, sought a reprieve, but the judges found naught in his pleas to soften the blow of justice.

Let us look back at the grim affair. On the fifth of January, in the village of Kedrovka, a feast was laid—not one of fellowship, but of blood. In a fit of savage rage, Ovchinnikov plunged his blade into the flesh of Alexei Surodeev. The rogue vanished into the winter fog, leaving his victim to bleed in silence. Poor Surodeev lingered for days, clutching his wounds, before finally succumbing to the darkness in a hospital ward.

The law, however, has long arms. By mid-January, the constabulary tracked the villain to a hospital, where he was apprehended like a common thief. In the dock, Ovchina played the part of the defiant rogue, claiming the deceased had 'sought his own death.' He whimpered about his failing health as the sentence was read, but such theatrics fall on deaf ears when the blood of a man cries out from the earth.

Ovchinnikov is no stranger to the shackles; he is a veteran of those early, brutal gangs that plagued the streets with robberies. Years ago, he attempted a brazen seizure of the Shartash Market, an act of greed that marked him in the eyes of every detective in the precinct. As for the fallen Surodeev—called 'Sensei' or 'Lesha the Sorcerer' by the locals—he too had walked the crooked path, once serving as an acolyte to the infamous 'Trophy.' But the sorcerer had sought redemption through the healing arts, only to find his end at the tip of a criminal's knife.