MURDER TRIAL BEGINS WITH GRISLY ACCOUNTS PAIR ACCUSED OF ABDUCTING, KILLING 5.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

Meyer Muscatel lay face down, bleeding on a bare garage floor, his hands and feet bound, his head cloaked by a plastic bag.

``What do you want?'' moaned the Sherman Oaks developer to his Russian-born abductors. ``You must have the wrong man.''

Five days later, the body of the 58-year-old philanthropist was found floating in a frigid mountain reservoir north of Yosemite National Park. Five months later, in March 2002, the decomposed bodies of four more Los Angeles residents were hauled from the Sierras' waters.

Federal prosecutors recounted their grisly deaths Wednesday at the start of a death-penalty trial of two alleged ringleaders of an international kidnapping ring that killed the victims regardless of whether ransoms were paid.

Iouri Mikhel, 41, of Encino and Jurijus Kadamovas, 39, of Sherman Oaks have pleaded not guilty to federal charges that include conspiracy and hostage-taking resulting in death. They also are charged in a sophisticated jail-break attempt.

Prosecutors said the crew of Russian immigrants collected more than $1.2 million in ransom after promising family members their loved ones would go free.

``The evidence will show that the defendants killed them in cold blood, with cold-blooded deliberation,'' Susan DeWitt, a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said during opening statements that lasted two hours.

``The motive was money -- abducting for ransom was their business.''

The trial, presided over by Judge Dickran Tevrizian in a high-security courtroom atop the Roybal Federal Building downtown, is expected to include 100 witnesses and last four months.

A third defendant, 33-year-old Petro Krylov, has pleaded not guilty and is slated for trial in January.

Three other co-conspirators have pleaded guilty.

Attorneys for the defendants described them as hard-working immigrants who had wanted to open a boutique aquarium store on Ventura Boulevard.

Kadamovas was described as an immigrant who once worked three jobs to get by. Mikhel was described as an international financier, debt collector and sometime crook -- anything but a killer.

``Iouri became known as the Money Man,'' defense attorney Richard Callahan said during his opening statement. ``He became a master of deception sought by people worldwide ... he was nothing less than a magician.

``(But) the evidence will prove that Iouri Mikhel was a strong businessman who wouldn't have resorted to violence.''

``Mr. Kadamovas is not guilty of any of the charges against him,'' added his attorney, Sonia Chahin.

Authorities allege that the pair orchestrated the kidnapping and eventual killing of Muscatel; Rita Pekler, 39, a financial consultant from Encino; Alexander Umansky, 35, the owner of a high-end car-stereo store from Sherman Oaks; and Nick Kharabadze, 29, a promising filmmaker from Woodland Hills.

A fifth victim, banking mogul and movie producer Georgy Safiev, 37, of Beverly Hills, was Kharabadze's business partner.

Both defense attorneys blame Ainar Altmanis, one of the defendants who pleaded guilty, for kidnapping and killing the victims. He is expected to be the prosecution's lead witness.

DeWitt outlined the grisly details of a sophisticated kidnapping scheme in late 2001 used to buy lavish homes, fancy cars and mink coats for girlfriends.

Using various guises and prepaid cell phones, what law enforcement officials had earlier described as a Russian mob lured its victims to homes and businesses and abducted them, according to a criminal indictment.

Muscatel, a deeply religious building contractor who had founded a charity for children and attended prayers twice a day for his late mother, was first.

The night he disappeared, he had told one of his twin daughters that he planned to stop for a business meeting en route to a chess game. The next day, police found his Ford Explorer parked at Gelson's market in Sherman Oaks.

After the weighted body was tossed from a bridge above New Melones Reservoir, Kadamovas bragged about ``killing the fat Jew,'' DeWitt said. Kadamovas had also told an accomplice that he aimed to amass $50 million in ransoms and fill the 300-foot-deep reservoir with victims.

During the trial, the mostly gray-haired jury heard lurid details that included duct tape, zip ties, sedative drugs and, always, death by strangling. One jurist closed his eyes as a video rolled of a clothed body pulled from the reservoir.

Meanwhile, family members clenched their teeth as the smiling faces of loved ones flashed across a screen.

Relatives of Alex Umansky paid more than $230,000 for his release -- with his abductors demanding more after his death -- with promises he'd be returned alive.

``My only wish is to get them executed as soon as possible,'' said Rubin Umansky, his father, ``that justice be done.''

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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