By Ivan Pereira
Mazoltuv Borukhova and her distant uncle, Mikhail Mallayev, never once looked at each other when they faced a Queens judge for the first time together Tuesday, but prosecutors contended that the duo were very chatty in the weeks leading up to the shooting murder of Dr. Daniel Malakov in a Forest Hills playground.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy formally consolidated the pair's separate indictments on first-degree murder and conspiracy in the Oct. 28 shooting of Borukhova's estranged husband. As the two defendants silently entered the courtroom, nearly 24 of Malakov's relatives cursed and shouted at their kin's accused killers.
“It was terrible,” Malakov's father, Khaifka, told reporters outside the court before being dragged away by his shoulders by his son Gavriel.
The Malakov family has openly accused Borukhova, 34, and her family of plotting the murder of popular Bukarian Jewish dentist who emigrated from Uzbekistan. Borukhova, also a Uzbek immigrant, had lost custody of their 5-year-old daughter Michelle a week before Malakov was gunned down.
Borukhova's family and the children of Mallayev, who whispered to each other inside the court, refused to comment to reporters.
Assistant District Attorney Brad Leventhal and the defense attorneys set a Sept. 3 start date for pretrial hearings. The judge told the lawyers that he wanted to start the criminal trial some time in October.
Leventhal contends Borukhova, hired Mallayev, 50, to come from Atlanta to Queens to shoot her estranged husband twice in the chest as he was dropping off Michelle at the Annadale Playground at Yellowstone Boulevard and 64th Road.
Police arrested Mallayev in November after they matched his fingerprints on police records to prints found on a makeshift silencer left at the playground by the shooter. Mallayev's court-appointed attorney Michael Siff said he has seen some of the police reports pertaining to that evidence and believes that it is circumstantial.
“It's not a perfectly rolled fingerprint like the prints you get at the police precincts,” he said, referring to the print on the silencer.
A source close to the prosecution said Mallayev was picked out during a police lineup, but Siff dismissed that piece of evidence, saying his client's mugshot was circulated heavily in the media before the lineup.
In February, police arrested Borukhova in connection with the murder after they found evidence that indicated she was behind Malakov's shooting, according to the Queens district attorney. Among the evidence are 91 phone calls allegedly made between her and Mallayev in the weeks leading up to the shooting and police wiretaps of her phone, the DA said.
Stephen Scaring, Borukhova's attorney, said he thinks the conversations do not implicate his client.
“We believe they never had a basis to have an eavesdropping. There was no evidence connecting her to the crime,” he said outside court.
If convicted, both face up to life in prison without parole.
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
