Trial set for ex-Wheaton College wrestler charged in deaths of wife, unborn son
A February trial date has been set for the former standout Wheaton College wrestler charged with stabbing to death his pregnant wife and their unborn son earlier this year in Minnesota.
A Hennepin County District Judge recently ruled prosecutors had probable cause to charge 31-year-old Yeveginy Savenok with four counts of first degree murder and set the trial for 9 a.m. on Feb. 7. Chuck Laszewski, Hennepin County Attorney's spokesman said all pretrial motions will be heard on Nov. 22.
After his May arrest, the 2008 Wheaton College graduate told police of a crumbling marriage and that he had thought about killing his 23-year-old wife, Lyubov, as he made his way back from Wheaton to their home in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis, in the early morning hours of May 14.
According to court documents, Savenok arrived at the home about 10:37 a.m. and stabbed his wife several times in her chest, shoulders and neck.
Lyubov died of massive blood loss due to roughly a dozen stab wounds, an autopsy showed. Doctors concluded that the baby, a boy they planned to name Ellis, was born too premature to survive.
At roughly 1 p.m. that day, Savenok arrived at United Hospital in St. Paul, along with two children. Officials said he told security guards at the hospital that he had just killed his wife.
Later, he told investigators of marital problems but said Lyubov had driven him to contemplate the killing. It was during the six-hour drive to Eden Prairie that he thought about using a knife to commit the crime, documents said.
Domestic abuse allegations against Savenok were made both in Wheaton and Minnesota, with an order of protection taken out by Lyubov in 2014.
Savenok was scheduled to appear before a Hennepin County judge three days after the murder to answer to charges stemming from four complaints in one month, August 2014, made by Lyubov.
Court records also show Lyubov filed for divorce in DuPage County on Nov. 5, 2014, but voluntarily rescinded the filing on April 14, 2015.