Brighton Beach Murder Suspect Claims To Have Demons In His Head That Made Him Kill His Ex-Girlfriend’s Lover

A man who is on trial for the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s lover confessed to detectives that there was a demon inside of his head during the killing.

Mikhail Chernyaev allegedly confessed to an NYPD detective that he took the life of Charles Butler, 47, in the Brighton Beach home of his ex-girlfriend, Anna Lioznov, on September 19, 2012.

A videotaped interview with Chernyaev and Detective Constantine Papadopoulos was shown in court yesterday, as well as a written statement from Chernyaev, detailing the murder, according to the Daily News.

“When I came to the door, I met one person. He started to talk about Anna,” Chernyaev allegedly wrote. “He saw me through the window and punched me in the stomach, he said to leave Anna alone. I pushed him and he hit his head.”

Surveillance footage from September 19, 2012 was shown to the court on Monday. In the video, Chernyaev is seen hanging around the apartment building moments after Lioznov had gone to work. He is filmed coming and going throughout that morning, equipped with shopping bags at one point.

Chernyaev said in the videotaped interview that he drove Butler’s dead body to the Upper West Side before bringing him upstate to Hawk’s Nest, near Port Jervis.

“I pushed him off the cliff, then I sat in my car and put it in gear and went home,” wrote Chernyaev in his confession. “I wasn’t feeling well. I was drinking a lot of water.”

Also in the written statement, Chernyaev allegedly wrote that there was a demon inside of him.

Chernyaev also admitted to putting Butler’s cell phone’s memory card into his own phone to text Lioznov, posing as Butler. Lioznov found certain texts to be unlike Butler’s usual tone and grew suspicious.

“I have to leave for 3 days, right now,” read one of the texts. “Just forget about me.”

However, Lioznov was lured to Chernyaev’s the next day for sex. “She wanted it,” according to Chernyaev.

Butler’s blood was found later by police on Lioznov’s walls and bed frame. His body, decomposed and partially eaten by animals, was found a month later in a ditch upstate.

Chernyaev turned down a plea deal in May 2015, and demanded the case be retried in English, sending Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog into a fury in which he pounded his desk and yelled at Chernyaev to “shut up.”