Married for life convicts: the incredible story of a Ukrainian family in the USA - ForumDaily
The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.
Переклад цього матеріалу українською мовою з російської було автоматично здійснено сервісом Google Translate, без подальшого редагування тексту.
Bu məqalə Google Translate servisi vasitəsi ilə avtomatik olaraq rus dilindən azərbaycan dilinə tərcümə olunmuşdur. Bundan sonra mətn redaktə edilməmişdir.

Married for life convicts: the incredible story of a Ukrainian family in the United States

At the end of this article there will be no conclusions or morality. There will be no calls in her to take sides or even excuses or condemnations. This is just a side view on the history of some relations, more precisely, on the history of a young woman, which not everyone will understand and support. Her name is Barbara Isaeva. In June 2011, she married a life-sentenced person and is now fighting for his early release.

Barbara and Maxim. Photos from the personal archive of Varvara Isaeva

Both living and dead heroes of this tragedy, without exaggeration, are almost impossible to find on the Internet. Dmitry has long been dead and the world wide web responds to a request about him only with a photograph of a gravestone on the cemetery website. Maxim, Maria and Gennady were sentenced to long terms, and references to them can be found only on the page of the California Prisons Department. And in the photos from the court session, in which Maxim looks like a frightened teenager.

Only Varvara lives the life of an almost ordinary person. “Almost” because she has been married for seven years to a man with whom she has never spent time alone, to a man who may never get out of prison, to a man whom she considers the best in the world. Varvara avoids social networks, even petitions in defense of her husband are posted on her behalf by her relatives. She spends all her time and energy trying to get her husband released. She also works and moves quite often - her place of residence depends on which prison Maxim is serving his sentence in. The prison changes - Varvara immediately takes off and goes to where she can get closer to her husband. After all, she spends every weekend with him. And he tries to call her every day and writes songs for her.

“I’ve already traveled all over California with him,” she laughs and immediately rejoices: “And before I even flew to him from Washington!” So I’m not complaining at all.”

There is no sadder story in the world ...

Maxim and Varvara met when they were very young - they were born in a small Ukrainian town and literally played in the same sandbox. Their fathers were friends, and one day Varvara’s father jokingly said to Maxim’s father: “That’s it! When our daughter grows up, we’ll only marry your son!”

Joked and forgotten.

Then Varvara’s family left Ukraine for Siberia, and a little later Maxim’s family moved to Russia - they were deeply religious people and fled from oppression on religious grounds. However, they did not find protection in Russia either, and therefore decided to flee to America. Varvara’s family was the first to arrive there; it happened in 1991. Her family chose Washington as their place to live. Almost ten years later, in July 2000, Maxim’s family moved to the USA. They settled in Sacramento (California).

Barbara and Maxim. Photos from the personal archive of Varvara Isaeva

The fathers of the families sometimes called each other, but could not agree on a meeting. Many years later. And in 2010, Varvara accidentally ended up in California - her younger brother always dreamed of seeing these places, and the girl was sent with him so that he would be under supervision. My father ordered me to go to Maxim’s family at the same time and personally meet with his parents.

“Dad once told me that Maxim was convicted of murder. But, to be honest, I ignored all this information because I didn’t remember him at all. As it turned out later, Maxim remembered a lot, although at the time we met he was very young - he was three months younger than me. I arrived at his house, and my future father-in-law decided to call Maxim. He dialed it and asked: “Who do you think came to us?” And Maxim, who has not seen me all these years, who has not spoken about me... suddenly says “Varvara!” We were all very amazed.

Young people began to correspond, and at the end of 2010, Barbara flew to Maxim for a date. In April, 2011, he offered her to marry him, and she, without hesitation, said “Yes”.

"I can not explain it. I just fell for him after the first call. Then we started writing to each other, and I realized that everything... When he asked me to get married, I didn’t know how to tell my parents about it, and I asked Maxim Yuri’s dad to call my father... He called and reminded me that you promised Varvara for Maxim to give, well, now it’s time to keep the promise.

Varvara's parents took the news without enthusiasm. “Well, why get married right away, especially since you just corresponded, just meet for now and that’s it,” they told their daughter. But she could no longer be dissuaded. They did not go to the wedding, although they blessed their daughter for marriage. And they immediately apologized - we can’t, it’s too hard for us, sorry...

Wedding day of Barbara and Maxim. Photos from the personal archive of Varvara Isaeva

“The wedding, of course, was strange. I’m in an ordinary dress - it was impossible to wear anything else, Maxim is in his robe. Basically like a regular date. With only one difference - Maxim has five brothers and sisters and they were never allowed to come to him all at the same time. And then they allowed it.”

Immediately after they became husband and wife, Varvara went home - Maxim was sentenced to life imprisonment, which means the strictest conditions of detention and no concessions, even if it is your own wedding day.

“Grace is either given or not ...”

Details of this case no problem can be found on the Internet. Everything, including the description of the type of weapon from which the murder was committed, and even gossip, which, in fact, caused the tragedy. If you do not go into details, then it sounds short.

On the night of the third to fourth of October, 2005, seventeen-year-old Maxim Isayev shot Dmitry Paskar, who was about to be twenty-two years old, shot from a pump-gun. The murder was committed in the presence of Maria Stepanova, who at the time was only nineteen years old. Previously, she was a friend of Maxim, and the day before the tragedy she complained to Maxim about Dmitry’s inappropriate behavior. Gennady brought Maxim to the place of the tragedy, he knew that Maxim put a gun in the trunk of the car, but did nothing to stop him. Maxim spent all sessions of the court in headphones, listening to the Russian translation, by that time his English did not reach that level so that he could easily understand the judge or the prosecutor ...

The jury concluded that all the participants of the incident were somehow guilty of the death of Dmitry. Maria can only ask for parole until February 2019. Gennady later, but also in 2019. But Maxim was only in October 2029 of the year ... Unless, of course, he and Barbara failed to get an appeal, which Maxim at first categorically did not want to file.

“Varyushka barely persuaded me,” he told me over the phone. “She convinced me that I needed to try, that I had changed. And I thought, why not? I came from Russia wounded. There he defended himself all the time, fought all the time - the family was very religious, and we were constantly teased. Then two other boys abused one of my brothers, took him to a construction site and... I was also beaten when I was a little over fourteen. I was used to protecting myself and the weak around me, so the entire time I lived in the USA I carried a weapon. When Maria called me and asked for a meeting, and then began to tell me what Dmitry did to her, I saw no reason not to believe her. But I made a lot of mistakes. I got drunk and started to cheat myself...

I did not even try to calm down and figure it out, I just brought myself to such a state that I took a gun and went to meet him. With me in the car, when we went there, there were adult men. One in thirty, one nearly thirty. Nobody told me: “What are you doing? Stop! ”. On the contrary ...

And then I returned home, even went to Washington for one day... In general, I began to live one day at a time, I didn’t know what was next - I killed a man! And at some point I began to pray - Lord, I myself cannot change my life, you change it! As I later found out, at the same time the first witness to the murder came to the police, and soon, on October thirteenth, I was arrested. Every day now I think - I ask for a second chance for myself, so the one I killed, even if he did something bad, also had the right to a second chance. I didn’t leave it to him... I was traumatized as a child and very badly. What if he was injured too? I didn’t give him a chance, but now I ask him for myself. Although I have no hope, I know that mercy is either given or not. My wife believes in me and in our future, if she hadn’t pushed me, nothing would have happened...

Barbara and Maxim. Photos from the personal archive of Varvara Isaeva

Varvara not only pushed Maxim to think about an appeal, she not only comes to see him in prison every weekend, writes, calls, distributes petitions, she managed to give Maxim an education and paid for it. Thanks to her, he graduated from the Stratford career institute drug and alcohol counseling program. And now he can work with prisoners who suffer from some type of addiction. Varvara herself is an analyst at High Speed ​​Rail, a company that is building high-speed rail in California.

The parents of Barbara over the years have become a different attitude to the situation, softer. Maxim's father died without waiting for his son from prison. Part of the insurance received by the Isaev family after his death was sent by Maxim to the mother of the deceased Dmitry.

“Maxim once told me that he thought, well, a year, well, our relationship would last a little more... Even he didn’t believe that I would stay with him for a long time,” says Varvara. - But he’s so good! He can no longer be better than he is now. Therefore, I believe that we will be able to achieve parole and that he will be pardoned. If not him, then who?”

Currently, Varvara and Maxim are waiting for a response from the state governor, to whom they sent a petition for clemency. They also went to federal court and posted a petition in support of Maxim - it can be found on the Internet. There are no guarantees that they will succeed. Even the best lawyer cannot give them in such a situation.

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