On February 26, 2010, a Suffolk County Jury yesterday convicted Steven Odegard for the 2008 Boston South End murder of Daniel Yakovleff. After meeting Yakovleff at a Boston South End bar, prosecutors accused Odegard of taking him to his home, engaging in sexual relations, and then stabbing him to death in a fit of rage.
The criminal defendant, Steven Odegard, testified in his own defense and admitted to meeting Yakovleff at a gay bar the previous evening and returning with him to his home. He claimed, however, that there was also a third man who returned to his home with them and it was this man who went into his bedroom with Yakovleff after Odegard and the victim had already had sex. In his testimony, Odegard told the jury he woke up around 6:00 a.m. and found Yakovleff in his bed with a 13-inch knife in his chest and the third man already gone-he then called 911 and spoke with the Boston Police Officers who responded to his call. Odegard’s defense at his murder trial was that he had passed out on the couch after a night of alcohol, prescription drugs and the Levitrol sex drug that he took.
The defense had also called called a physiology/pharmacology expert in its case, who testified that the combination of alcohol and drugs that Odegard took that evening could have made him inebriated to the point where his cognitive and physical skills were so diminished that he wouldn’t have been able to function.
Under Massachusetts law and now having been convicted by a jury for murder, Steven Odegard will be sentenced to a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Odegard’s criminal defense lawyer was able to identify the third man Yakovleff was with earlier that night. Despite that man had provided an alibi for his whereabouts that evening and Suffolk County prosecutors claiming that no other person was with Odegard and Yakovleff that evening, that alibi was challenged by the defense lawyer
Given the obvious severe penalties involved with a murder conviction and many other major felonies, it is critical to your defense that you immediately consult with a criminal lawyer the moment you have come under investigation for a crime.
To speak with a Boston Criminal Defense Lawyer, contact Attorney Lefteris K. Travayiakis via e-mail or directly at 617-325-9500.
Read the original report by Milton J. Valencia, Boston Globe Staff.