Man apologizes for nearly killing victim in crash
14 YEARS: Basargin plowed into three vehicles last July while high.
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: April 1, 2006
Last Modified: April 1, 2006 at 01:29 AM
High on methamphetamine, under the delusion "an evil cloud" was chasing him, Vasily Basargin crashed his truck last July into vehicles at three busy Anchorage intersections during rush hour, injuring four people.
Motorcyclist Zach Putman got the worst of it. On the afternoon of July 6, he was trying to turn left from Northern Lights Boulevard onto Boniface Parkway when Basargin, headed the wrong way on Northern Lights, slammed into him and kept going.
On Friday morning, Putman, now 26, hobbled to the front of an Anchorage courtroom where a shackled Basargin awaited sentencing for crimes arising from the crashes. As the hearing progressed, Putman went from feeling something akin to hate toward the man who had hurt him to forgiving him.
"Basically I just came here today, I wanted to make a statement to say how much this changed my life. It was a pretty bad accident. I came close to death," Putman told Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton.
He'll never be the same, he said before the hearing. His ankle was broken into dozens of pieces; his arm is held together with a pin. He can't snowboard or skateboard or run anymore.
He thought Basargin didn't care. He remembered what Basargin told a police officer right after the crash: that he wouldn't change a thing. The victims deserved what they got, Basargin said back in July, because they were trying to stop him from getting away from the evil cloud.
As Putman told the judge how a bystander tied off his leg and stopped the bleeding, Basargin lowered his head, choked back sobs and cried. Someone handed him a tissue.
Basargin is not the same man who caused all that trouble while high on drugs, his lawyer, Julia Moudy, told the judge. He's a hardworking person, close to his parents and brother, eager to get back to the family construction business, where he used to work long days, she said.
"He's extremely remorseful," she said.
Then it was the defendant's turn to talk. Not all choose to.
Basargin, now 29, was wearing jailhouse yellow, his hair neatly cut, his beard slightly scruffy. It was hard to make out his words through his heavy Russian accent but it was clear he wanted Putman to forgive him.
"I'm very sorry from the bottom of my heart," Basargin said.
From the back of the courtroom, where he sat listening to the remorse of the man he came prepared to hate, Putman said, "I accept your apology,"
According to police accounts, Basargin first slammed into a van at UAA Drive and Northern Lights, hurting the driver. Then he hit Putman on his motorcycle. Then, at Northern Lights and Baxter, a Toyota Corolla with an older couple inside. The driver suffered cracked vertebrae and broken ribs. His passenger was hurt too. Two other vehicles were damaged as well.
"It's a miracle that somewhere along the way it wasn't life-destroying," Wolverton said.
And even then, when his truck would go no more, Basargin ran into the parking lot of the Anchorage Baptist Temple and tried to pull a woman out of her car, presumably to steal it, police said. The woman's 2-year-old was inside. Basargin had no driver's license. Police say tests found meth and cocaine in his system.
"Can you imagine how scared the motorists were, watching this guy blow through intersections?" prosecutor Natasha Norris said before the hearing. "He kept going and going and going, which presented a significant danger to the public."
Basargin wanted to spare the victims from testifying at a trial, Moudy said. He pleaded no contest to assault, robbery and driving under the influence and accepted what everyone agreed was a stiff sentence. He was ordered to serve a combined 14 years for one count of robbery and four counts of assault -- one for each injured driver or passenger -- plus 20 days for the DUI.
He also must pay restitution, as yet undetermined, to the victims, Norris said.
Basargin came into the hearing with a prior record, a 2003 drunken driving conviction and a 2004 felony assault conviction from a fight at a party at which Basargin pulled a gun.
At Moudy's urging, Wolverton recommended that Basargin receive drug treatment in prison. Once he completes such a program, he should be allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence in a halfway house, the judge said.
That way, he can go to work sooner, to pay back the people he hurt, Moudy said.
Putman used a wheelchair until October, then progressed to a cane. He walked without one Friday, but limped. He said the Alaska winters are too icy for someone with a weakened leg. He and his girlfriend are moving to Arizona.
He's a long way from healed. He hopes to be evaluated next month for an operation to replace his ankle with one from a cadaver. He settled with the insurance company that covered Basargin's truck, which actually belonged to the defendant's parents. After lawyer fees, he got about $75,000, he said. He has no major medical insurance and bills are mounting.
Putman said after the hearing that he felt better having listened to Basargin. He's made mistakes, too, Putman said, and Basargin seems like he'll change.
"I forgive him."
Linear Mode
