http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/05 ... 5_5_06.txt

Teen pleads not guilty in uncle's violent slaying

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- The Encinitas teenager who police say may have played video games with friends while his uncle's slain body lie in another room pleaded not guilty Friday to one count of murder.

Eugene Koptev, 17, is being housed in Juvenile Hall. Superior Court Judge Adrienne Orfield set bail at $2 million.

The teenager, with tousled hair and shackles on his waist, did not speak during his short arraignment. Prosecutors are charging Koptev as an adult; he faces 26 years to life in prison if convicted.

The body of Koptev's uncle, Sergey Bobkov, was found slain in Bobkov's Encinitas home on the 1400 block of Avenida La Posta on April 29 by a real estate agent hired to sell the residence.

In an affidavit filed Tuesday seeking a warrant for Koptev's arrest, a sheriff's detective states that the county medical examiner's office estimated that Bobkov may have been killed on April 27 or 28.

At least three boys told sheriffs' detectives that they spent April 28 playing video games in the Encinitas house with Koptev, who they knew as "Gino," according to the affidavit.

The boys told detectives that Koptev had a bandage on his right lower arm but he told them that he had been in a bar fight.

Koptev had told his friends to stay out of the downstairs office where the body was later found and sold one of them a computer system for $70, the affidavit says.

Koptev, whose mother and stepfather were in Seattle, had been living with his aunt and uncle. His aunt had gone to Boston to look for a new home, the affidavit said.

At 8 p.m. on April 28 ---- the night before the discovery of Bobkov's body ---- Koptev's stepfather, Vladimir Schipunov, called the home, concerned because Bobkov's wife was unable to reach Bobkov, the affidavit states. During that phone call, Koptev allegedly told his stepfather that everything at the home was fine. Later phone calls by Schipunov were meet with a busy signal or beeping, the document says.

With the family suspicious after Bobkov had been unreachable for several days, Koptev's stepfather Schipunov flew to San Diego on the morning of Apr. 29, the affidavit states.

Schipunov and the victim's son reached the house in Encinitas and found it surrounded by deputies and crime scene tape.

The primary crime scene in the home was a downstairs office and attached bathroom. Both rooms had blood on the walls and floors, the affidavit states, and the bathroom door was found ripped from the hinges and broken in two pieces ---- one piece on top of the victim, the other piece underneath him.

The victim's son later alleged that Koptev had described the killing in an online chat room, the affidavit says.

Koptev was attending the Sunset Continuation High School in Encinitas, the San Dieguito High School District confirmed this week.

Koptev's immigration status is unclear, based on publicly available information. In the arrest warrant, the detective asserts that Koptev told his friends he could be deported back to Russia for the alleged bar fight as a violation of his probation.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency Spokeswoman Lauren Mack on Friday said she could not discuss Koptev's immigration status because Koptev is under 18.

Generally speaking, Mack said, any immigrant ---- legal or illegal ---- convicted of a crime of violence in the United States is subject to deportation.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.