In Forest Hills Murder-For-Hire, Appellate Court Upholds Guilty Verdict

It’s been years since Forest Hills residents have been forced to relive the events surrounding the murder-for-hire of dentist Daniel Malakov in front of his four-year-old daughter.

Malakov was killed in Forest Hills by a hit-man who used an improvised silencer and carried out the slaying in broad daylight, after being hired by the victim’s ex-wife. The incident quickly became one of the most infamous killings in the history of the borough.

In March 2009, Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova and triggerman Mikhail Mallayev were found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy and eventually sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The motive for the murder, the courts concluded, was Borukhova’s desire to wrest custody of her daughter away from her ex-husband permanently.

Borukhova appealed the decision at the state level. Late last week, the second Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court handed down a decision, upholding the initial guilty verdict.

In her appeal, Borukhova said that much of the evidence at trial should have been suppressed, including statements she made to police after her arrest because she was not given adequate Miranda warnings.

Ultimately, the appellate court unanimously found that the guilty verdict’s should be upheld.

District Attorney Richard Brown, who initially prosecuted the case, said the entire case was an example of the worst of humanity’s capabilities.

“This was a terribly sad case in which the defendant was found to have conspired and carried out a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate her estranged husband, Dr. Daniel Malakov, in full view of the couple’s then-four-year-old child.” Brown said. “The Appellate Division’s unanimous affirmance of the jury’s verdict and the trial court’s sentence of incarceration will hopefully bring a measure of closure to Dr. Malakov’s family.”