Trial for murder of twp. man continues Police say suspect attempted to dispose of murder weapon BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer Even though Ekaterina Vovolatskaya was expecting her boyfriend, Sergey Barbashov, to come back to her house onWalter Drive in 20 to 30 minutes after dropping her off, she sat back down and kissed him before he left. "It was strange," Vovolatskaya said to the eight-woman, seven-man jury onApril 2 in Superior Court in New Brunswick. "Maybe it was God's will, because I never did that before." However, Barbashov never made it back to Vovolatskaya's home that night on Oct. 30, 2003. The next time she saw her boyfriend was the next day at the University ofMedicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in Newark, where he was pronounced dead from gunshot wounds. Police were dispatched to Yardley Avenue inside the Forest View apartment complex at 10:58 p.m. Oct. 30, 2003, after a resident called police about hearing gunshots in the area, according to police reports. Aleksy Bautin, 26, Forest View Drive, Avenel, and Sergey Barbashov, 21, Edison were found shot to death in the front seat of a red 1999 Volkswagen that was parked across the street from Building 12 of the Forest View apartments. Each man had been shot several times, according to authorities. 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 the next day atUMDNJ. He was employed by Olger Motors in Bridgeton. Michael E. Ross II, 25, formerly of Chestnut Avenue in Avenel, was arrested and charged on Sept. 11, 2006, in connectionwith the deaths of Bautin and Barbashov. Ross pleaded not guilty to the two counts of murder and two counts of weapons charges at his arraignment on Oct. 5, 2006. He has been held at the Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick, since his arrest. Ross faces up to 30 years to life in prison if convicted of the murder charges, authorities said. The jury heard the 911 call that Barbashov was able to make after he had been shot. "I'm shot … I'm shot," he gasped as the 911 dispatcher askedwhere his locationwas. Barbashov, who was only able to say Woodbridge, could be heardmoaning for several minutes as the 911 dispatcher continuously said "Hello." Vovolatskaya, who said she considered Barbashov her best friend and described their relationship as a close one,wiped away tears as she heard Barbashov's voice. The jury learned that Barbashov was having money problems with a business partner, Vince Baksht. "They would argue a lot," said Vovolatskaya, who said she used to date Vince. John Koufos, defense attorney for Ross, asked Vovolatskaya if it caused any animosity between her boyfriend and Baksht since she did date him once. "No, it did not cause any animosity," answered Vovolatskaya. JohnHaley,whowas the chief identification officer for theMiddlesex County Prosecutor's Office at the time of the crime and is now retired, testified on April 3 that the spent shells found fromthe crime scenewere consistent with a 9 mm handgun. Police retrieved a 9 mm Beretta from Ross' father, Michael E. Ross Sr., a 9 mm Glock from Vince (Vitaly) Baksht, and a 9 mm Hi-Point handgun from Ross' friend Nicholas Simean. Haley testified that the ballistic tests concluded that the spent shells did not match any of the three guns retrieved. WoodbridgeDetectiveChristopher Lyons testified that police had one eyewitness to the shootings and several other witnesses. Lyons, who agreed that the case had a lack of forensic evidence, testified that Jamil McKnight, who was the one eyewitness to the crime, told police that he and Ross disposed of the murder weapon, which had come from McKnight's bedroom, into a hole near McKnight's home the day after the shootings. McKnight said he laterwent back and retrieved the weapon and took it to New York City in the presence of his friend Sherrill Williams. However, McKnight did not relay that Williams was with him until 2007, because he did notwant to implicate his friend in the murders. Police were never able to recover the weapon. Through testimony by Ronald Huff, who was in the neighborhood at the time of the murders, McKnight was in his vehicle with Ross on the night of themurders along with Williams. Williams, in a statementwith police, said the murder weapon belonged toMcKnight. Lyons said that even though some of the witnesses who police talked to didn't tell police all the details of the crime at first, the one detail that didn't change in all the witness statements they received was the fact that Ross was the one who pulled the trigger. John Koufos, defense attorney for Ross, asked the detective if McKnight was ever chargedwith possession of aweapon, since it was stated that the murder weapon came from his bedroom. "No, he was not," replied Lyons, who stressed that through police tactics, police had to weigh all the facts in the case. "Our conclusions all together is not based upon one statement, it was based on one eyewitness and other witnesses." Assistant Prosecutor Julie Davidson added that Ross was charged with possession of aweapon and possession of aweapon for an unlawful purpose, not ownership of the weapon.