Local man pleads not guilty to murder of two
Michael E. Ross II is being held on $1.55 million bail
BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer

WOODBRIDGE - An Avenel man accused of shooting two Russian men to death in 2003 will face a Middlesex County grand jury in several weeks, an assistant county prosecutor said.

Michael E. Ross II, 23, pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of unlawful possession of weapons at his arraignment before state Superior Court Judge Joseph L. Rea in New Brunswick on Oct. 5. Ross' attorney, Anthony Cariddi, entered the pleas.

Ross was returned to the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center in North Brunswick on Oct. 1. He is being held on $1.55 million bail with no 10 percent option, said Assistant Prosecutor Julie Davidson.

"He [Ross] will appear before a grand jury in the next couple of weeks," said Davidson. "The grand jury will decide on the charges and either a [plea deal] will be made or the case will go to trial."

Ross, formerly of Chestnut Street in Avenel, was arrested and charged with the two murders on Sept. 11, while he was incarcerated in the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Wrightstown.

He was already serving an 18-month prison sentence since March 29 for aggravated assault and theft charges, according to state Department of Corrections authorities.

"He has been paroled on the aggravated assault charges [for his 18-month prison sentence]," Davidson said.

Ross was arrested and charged in connection with the deaths of Aleksy Bautin, 26, Forest View Drive, Avenel, and Sergey Barbashov, 21, Edison, authorities from the Prosecutor's Office said.

Ross was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one second-degree count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, and one third-degree count of unlawful possession of a weapon, authorities said.

Both men were found shot to death in the front seat of a red 1999 Volkswagen parked near the Forest View apartments. Each man had been shot several times, authorities said.

The arrest came after witnesses' statements and a "tireless" investigation by Detective Christopher Lyons of the Woodbridge Police Department and Investigator Mark Clements of the Prosecutor's Office, authorities said.

Davidson said investigators have a few theories about the motive for the shootings.

Police were dispatched to Yardley Avenue inside the apartment complex at 10:58 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2003, after a resident called police about gunshots in the area, according to police reports.

Bautin, a computer programmer for TheaterMania in New York City, was pronounced dead at the scene, only a few hundred feet from his parents' third-floor apartment.

Barbashov died several hours later on Oct. 31, 2003, at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey [UMDNJ] in Newark. He was employed by Olger Motors in Bridgeton.