A candlelight vigil begins trial of Yakovleff's accused killer

A candlelight vigil was held Sunday evening, Jan. 24, in memory of openly gay South End hairstylist Daniel Yakovleff, 20, who was found the victim of a brutal homicide two years ago this month.

The following day, the trial of Yakovleff's accused killer, Steven Odegard, began. Yakovleff had been found stabbed to death in the defendant's apartment early on the morning of Jan. 17, 2008, and Odegard was subsequently charged with the victim's murder after turning himself in to the police in December of that year.

Prosecution's opening statements, heard Monday, Jan. 25, detailed the evening that ended with Yakovleff's gruesome slaying. Suffolk County homicide prosecutor Assistant District Attorney Mark T. Lee described to jurors how the two men had met in the early hours of Jan. 17 at the Boston Eagle, a Tremont St. bar, and decided to return to Odegard's apartment. "What happened next, plain and simple, is that Dan Yakovleff was murdered," Lee said. "I can't tell you exactly what happened. No one can, because a crime this violent is not one you commit in front of witnesses."

The discovery of Yakovleff's body, four hours after his murder, yielded more clues about what had transpired in Odegard's apartment. Odegard himself had been the one to call the police, reporting to 911 emergency response that there was "a dead man in my house." Responding authorities found that Yakovleff had been stabbed fifteen times in the chest with a foot-long kitchen knife, which was still plunged into the victim's body upon his discovery. One particular wound had been so violently inflicted, it left a mark on the victim's back.

In the days and weeks following the violent attack that ended the life of the popular Roxbury resident, Odegard was questioned several times by Boston Police homicide detectives. During one such questioning, the defendant gave a two-hour statement describing the presence of a "mysterious third man," who had also returned to Odegard's apartment, and who, Odegard insinuated, then murdered Dan Yakovleff.

"There isn't a scintilla of evidence," that places a third man in Odegard's apartment the night of Yakovleff's killing, Lee said on Monday. Boston Police criminalists had processed 90 pieces of evidence from the scene for DNA testing and an additional 132 pieces of evidence for other forensic tests.

After his December 2008 arrest, Steven Odegard was held without bail on the charge of first-degree murder, and entered a plea of "not guilty" at his arraignment. In July 2009, Odegard filed a motion to dismiss the charges leveled against him, alleging that evidence of the third mystery man's presence was being willfully ignored by the District Attorney's office.

In August, Odegard's motion was denied. "Our belief is that the legal foundation for the case is quite strong, but more than that, the evidence is quite strong as well," District Attorney spokesperson Jake Wark said on Aug. 5. "There is some evidence in the defense attorney's motion to dismiss that suggests that there's a third party unknown DNA, which is simply not true." Wark went on to say that every DNA sample recovered at the scene of the crime can be linked to the defendant, the victim, or a man that the victim had been intimate with prior to his death. Judge Charles J. Hely agreed and on August 31 of last year, dismissed allegations of evidence misrepresentation and called for the trial to proceed on schedule.

The sixteen jurors that have been selected to determine Odegard's innocence or guilt visited both the crime scene and the Boston Eagle on Tuesday, Jan. 26. Wednesday's shortened trial day saw testimony from Adam Fang and Melinda Schuler, Yakovleff's close friends.

Check BayWindows.com for trial updates throughout the week.