I asked you to kill me because I could not suffer anymore

Now, the organizer of this execution, Mažvydas Jukna and his 4 henchmen: Vladimiras Dapkus, Vytautas Juozapaitis, Andrius Žukauskas and Rolandas Kojalavičius have received retribution. The Vilnius District Court decided that they should all go to prison for a long time.

The men appeared before the court for severe health impairment caused by extremely cruel torture, illegal deprivation of liberty, threats to kill, leaving without help when a person’s life is in danger, and robbery.

As M. Jukna himself told, this story started because he was kidnapped, beaten and robbed by two strangers: they took 40 thousand. euros and a Kia Sportage car. He himself began to look for who did it.

“I didn’t go to the police because I didn’t trust them,” explained M. Jukna, who had been convicted 12 times in Lithuania and 20 times abroad for theft, robbery and violence.

He suspected a couple of acquaintances

While wondering who could have committed the theft, the shadow of suspicion fell on a couple of acquaintances – Tatyana and Andrei.

“I know that they asked me what I do, where I got such a car from, – why they suspected them, explained M. Jukna. – So I decided to talk to Andrei. I knew I would have to scare him a little, maybe beat him a little.”

In order to implement the plan, M. Jukna invited 4 friends to help, rented a Toyota Corolla Verso car and collected the necessary items: a knife, a gas bottle, towels and water. The last two were needed for “bath procedures”, as the executioners themselves called them. It is otherwise known as water torture, an extremely brutal method that causes the sensation of drowning. Overexertion can damage a person’s brain, lungs or even kill the victim.

When they were ready, they moved towards Naujininkai, where Andrei lived. V. Juozapaitis, who knows him best, lured the victim out of the house, and then everyone attacked him: sprayed him with gas, hit him several times and pushed him into the car.

“For what? – screamed Andrei in shock, and M. Jukna told him: – Shut up, don’t scream, you’ll soon find out why.”

Tortured in the most brutal ways

They drove to a remote place in the Burbiškii forest, a few kilometers away, dragged the kidnapped man out of the car, emptied his pockets and took everything he had with him – money, phone, cigarettes and drugs. He still tried to resist, so they tied his hands behind his back with plastic straps.

“Either tell me who robbed me and we’ll leave you, or I’ll find out anyway, and you won’t come back from this forest,” said M. Jukna, proving the reality of the threats with blows.

Andrei kept repeating that he knew nothing and had not stolen anything, but the executioners were not even going to believe him. He was laid on the cold ground, three covered him, the fourth pressed a towel to his face, and the fifth poured water on him. They did this for about an hour, constantly changing.

“I poured maybe 16 times in total, but I don’t know for sure, I stopped counting after the 11th time,” Andrejus recalled.

The centuries-old method of torture, which causes both physical suffering and long-term psychological trauma, is so effective that it was once favored by US officials, who have successfully broken a number of terrorists.

“If you don’t confess anything, you won’t leave here alive,” he threatened Andrei, but he only said: “Beat, torture, but I don’t know anything.”

Didn’t know anything

The attackers could not break their victim, so they decided to take more radical measures. V. Dapkus took the pliers and pulled out Andrej’s lower front tooth.

“Then V. Juozapaitis asked him to give it to him to try,” the victim recalled. “But his hands were shaking, so he chipped a few of my teeth more than pulled them out.”

When a confession could not be extracted after pulling his teeth, M. Jukna pulled out a knife and said that he would now cut off his ear.

“Cut, I still don’t know anything,” retorted Andrei, who was already tortured.

M. Jukna cut the victim’s head near the ear, then took a knife and started stabbing him in the buttocks and shoulders, tried to cut off a finger. Later, experts will count 13 slash and stab wounds.

“It was more a desire to intimidate than to cut,” M. Jukna pleaded in court and further explained his sadistic logic: “I stabbed after thinking everything through, I took the knife so that I didn’t dig deeper than 1 cm.” I know from biology that a 1 cm puncture won’t damage any arteries, and there aren’t any in the buttocks and shoulders at all.”

The organizer of the execution added that his victim tried to resist even then: “But where are you going to resist when there are so many men around, he is not even physically capable, we are sportsmen, and he is a drug addict!”

Since the victim continued to say that he knew nothing, the executioners took towels and tied the ends and beat the man. The pain was so strong that Andrey was convinced that they had put stones in the towels, but this detail could not be proven.

Someone pulled out a key from the trunk to turn the wheels of the car and beat it on the legs, others just kicked it and jumped on it.

“Maybe that’s all, we’re taking him home, he still doesn’t feel anything anymore”, V. Juozapaitis stated after the execution that lasted for about 3 hours, and everyone else agreed with him.

Found on the street

They loaded the barely conscious man into the trunk, drove to Darius and Girėnos street and threw him right on the road. It was about 0 degrees outside at that time.

“Perhaps around 5 o’clock in the morning, I heard a person’s cry,” a woman living on that street later recalled while testifying. “There is no light, it’s dark, but when the person started calling for his mother’s help, I decided to leave.”

The woman found Andrei kneeling on his knee, he was holding a backpack, a jacket was thrown over him, he was all wet and bloody.

“He was trying to say something, he said ‘he broke me’, he called for help, but it was very difficult for him to move and he was unable to stand up. He tried to get dressed, put on a hat, but he couldn’t,” said the witness who called for help.

The doctors managed to save Andrei, but he will feel the consequences for the rest of his life – his spine and ribs were broken, his lungs were damaged, and many other injuries were found.

“I don’t think he was in much pain because he used a lot of fentanyl,” M. Jukna later shared her assessment in court and said that she would agree to pay 5,000. euros for the moral damage caused.

Andrejus himself said that his life changed drastically after this event: he used to work in construction, where he received at least 2 thousand per month. euros, now he cannot do any physical work at all, he constantly has to take both painkillers and sedatives.

Kidnapped a girl

After an unsuccessful night, the men decided to try to break up Andrei’s friend Tatiana, who allegedly might also know something about the theft.

The worried woman, not suspecting anything bad, called V. Juozapaičius that morning and asked if he knew what happened to Andrej, because he is now in intensive care.

“He told me that he didn’t know anything, but he would come to talk soon,” Tatiana told the court while testifying. – I didn’t suspect anything bad, I just took my phone. I saw a car in the parking lot that flashed its lights at me. I sat down and then I saw that V. Juozapaitis was very scared, another big, big, scary man was also sitting there, I have never seen him before.”

Soon, two more men jumped into the Toyota, grabbed Tatyana and prevented her from getting out. The girl tried to break the car window with the phone, but to no avail. Then they put a bag over her head and started suffocating her.

“You know, you gave navodke [nurodymą – red. past.] someone and someone took me to the forest. Who did you tell? Who did you give it to? navodkeM. Jukna kept insisting.

Together, they constantly threatened that she would be worse than Andrei.

“We will pull out all the teeth, break the legs, cut off the ear and pull out the claws, and then throw it off the bridge,” the sadists repeated.

After going to the same forest in Burbiškii, they tied the girl’s hands behind her back and started “bath procedures”. Threateningly, he poured all the water he had on the girl.

“Kill me, I can’t bear this torture anymore,” Tatiana begged.

After staying in the forest for maybe 2 hours, they all decided to continue the torture in M. Jukna’s apartment.

“While driving, they told how they cut Andrej, what they did with him, they also praised him for being very strong, because they themselves were tired of torture. He said that it would be the same for me,” the girl recalled.

After going to M. Juknas, they taped the girl’s mouth so that she would not make any noise, played music, and then gave her a bath.

“You can still take a breather until it’s full, and then we’ll start again,” said A. Žukauskas. Tatiana remembered this man as the biggest sadist, he also stabbed her leg with a fork and tortured her in other ways.

In the end, it all ended with the executioners themselves getting drunk and fighting with each other, and Tatiana, taking advantage of the opportunity, managed to jump onto the neighbor’s balcony. She called for help, and the police arrested M. Juknas and V. Dapkai.

A. Žukauskas and V. Juozapaitis ran away from the apartment and hid for several weeks, so until they were found, Tatjana was assigned police protection and given an emergency button.

“I was afraid to go out into the street, that’s why I lost my job,” Tatiana told how the nightmare she experienced affected her. – I was afraid to even approach the window, I am still afraid. When the phone rings, I start shaking, a passing car makes me panic.”

Will go to jail

As a result of this execution, all 5 men were sent to prison for a long time. It is true that each of the defendants, although they admitted to participating in the incident, tried to downplay their role.

For example, R. Kojalavičius claimed that he was only driving the car and was a passive observer. He has previously been convicted twice for attempted theft and disorderly conduct. The court gave him the mildest sentence – 2 years and 3 months of imprisonment.

V. Dapkus admitted his guilt, but claimed that he was very drunk all those days and doesn’t remember anything at all. He has previously been convicted 15 times for theft and violent crimes, in addition, he lived abroad from 2018 to 2021, where he constantly stole and got caught many times. He will spend 6 years and 6 months in prison.

M. Jukna was sentenced the most severely, he was sentenced to 8 years and 3 months in prison. V. Juozapaitis will spend 6 years and 6 months in prison, and Andrius Žukauskas – 6 years and 2 months.

According to the court’s decision, they will have to pay 8,700 euros in non-pecuniary damage to Andrej, and 4,700 euros to Tatiana.

This verdict can still be appealed to the Court of Appeal.