Killer of Bulgarian Tycoon's Sister Faces Death Penalty in US

Father Pavel Naydenov (r-c), friends and relatives attend the memorial services for Slavka Naydenova and her son Paul Wilson at the Sofia’s “Sveti Sedmochilenitsi” church. Photo by BGNES

US prosecutors can use the confession of Russian Natalia Wilson, who is charged with killing Bulgarian Slavka Naydenova, and her 8-year-old son in Prince William County, Virginia.

The news was reported by Washington post.

At the beginning of March, the Russian woman confessed she committed the murder out of jealousy.

The confession was made after a lengthy 20-hour interrogation. Natalia Wilson claims that she was in an emotionally affected condition when she killed 41-year-old Naydenova, sister of Bulgarian tycoon, founder and President of the Multigroup Corporation, Iliya Pavlov, who was shot dead in 2003. Wilson also confessed of killing Naydenova's 8-year-old son.

Lawyers for Natalia Wilson claimed statements she made to police were coerced. The judge, however, refused to suppress the statements, ruling they were made voluntarily, which means the confession will be allowed into evidence at Wilson's capital murder trial.

Prosecutors are pressing for death penalty.

Natalia Wilson is the second wife of Lester Wilson, an American national whom Slavka Naydenova divorced.

Natalia Wilson, formerly named Natalia Leshtenko, was born in Stavropol, and before leaving for the US used to live in the Russian Black Sea city of Novorossiysk. Her daughter (born in 1985) also lives with her in America.

"The case has received international attention because Naydenova was from a prominent Bulgarian family. Naydenova's brother, Iliya Pavlov, was a billionaire who was fatally shot in 2003, a day after testifying in the murder trial of five men charged in the assassination of former Prime Minister Andrei Lukanov" Washington Post writes.

Naydenova and her son Paul Wilson were stabbed to death in their home in Dale City, Virginia on February 2, 2011. Naydenova's current husband came home from work to find their bodies about 11 p.m., police said. He has been ruled out as suspect.

According to a criminal complaint on file in Prince William General District Court, Natalia Wilson, 47, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

The father, Pavel Naydenov said at the time that he has not been called by the US authorities for testimony. He also reported that his daughter had intentions to return to Bulgaria and settle in Sofia.

On February 21, the bodies of the victims were flown to Bulgaria to be buried in the village of Mirovyane - Naydenova's mother last resting place.

The transportation of the bodies to Bulgaria was slowed down because of planned expertise in the US, which had to determine whether there are DNA traces of an accomplice of the main suspect, Natalia Wilson.

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