Four years after a Kirkland family was killed, it all came down to one moment for Leonid Milkin: The chance for him to address Conner Schierman face-to-face, the man condemned to death by a jury for brutally taking the lives of his wife, his two boys and sister-in-law.

On that warm summer night on July 17, 2006, Schierman packed a flashlight, gloves, hunting knife and axe before he walked from his duplex to his neighbor’s home across Slater Avenue where Olga Milkin, 28; her sons, Justin, 5 and Andrew, 3; and her sister, Lyubov Botvina, 24, lived. He entered the home and stabbed the family to death, almost completely severing one of the boys’ heads.

The next morning, he drove to a nearby AM/PM gas station to pick up gasoline and returned to burn down the house.

Milkin’s only regret, he has said, is not being there to protect his family from their killer while he was stationed with the National Guard in Baghdad.

“It’s been a very long time,” Milkin told Schierman at the hearing on May 27. “I’m wondering what kind of a person would kill innocent women and children. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about what will happen to you in this life, but I’d be definitely concerned about the afterlife – what will happen next.”

Since the jury unanimously voted on May 5, King County Superior Court Judge Gregory Canova was required to follow their decision and formally impose the death penalty. Schierman was found guilty on four counts of aggravated first-degree murder and one count of arson on April 12.

One by one, members of the Milkin and Botvina families took to the microphone and looked Schierman in the eye — Yelena Shidlovsky, sister of Olga and Lyubov; Pavel Milkin, Leonid’s father and Lyubov Botvina, mother of the slain daughters.

“I don’t know what I’m feeling,” Shidlovsky said. “We were so looking forward to our future; to celebrate happiness.”

Lyubov Botvina spoke softly into the microphone, asking Schierman: “What forced you? What did they do to you?”

But the answer to those questions never came from Schierman. He stood before the judge maintaining his innocence.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t know what happened. I woke up in a strange house with four dead strangers,” Schierman said. “I’ll never be that scared or selfish ever again. I live on the choices I make –killing four people is not a choice I made.”

Judge Canova said little at the hearing, only stating that he agreed with the verdict. For the arson charge, Schierman was to serve 27 months in King County Correctional center, but will get credit for those; under Washington state law, Schierman must be transferred to the state penitentiary within 10 days of being sentenced to death.

The hearing took place in a much larger courtroom in Superior court on the ninth-floor, not Judge Canova’s chambers as they did in the five month-long trial. An unshaven Schierman was led out of the jail freight in “high security inmate” clothes and entered the chambers after walking down a hallway that was sealed off to spectators.

Schierman spoke at the hearing, acknowledging that it may take decades before he is actually put to death.

Schierman also took issue with the death penalty, saying that it’s hard to know just how many people that are on death row are innocent of the crimes they’ve been charged with. He said that killing him would just be “adding one more death to this tragedy.”

Defense Attorney Conroy and his co-counsel, Peter Connick, tried to convince the jury that Schierman was in an alcohol blackout at the time of the murders. Although they conceded that evidence in the home “absolutely” places Schierman in the home that night, Conroy insisted that the 2006 murders were “out of context” and that one or two unidentified males were involved in the slayings.

Throughout the trial, the 28-year-old former Kirkland resident showed almost no emotion, except during allocution, when he tearfully apologized for the family’s loss. But he did not disclose the facts of the case because it would have opened him up to cross-examination by prosecutors.

“When I did my allocution I wasn’t crying for myself,” Schierman said. “I was crying for my friends and family. Even if I had said, ‘I knew what happened’ to save my life, it wouldn’t have happened.”

If just one member of the jury had not voted for the death penalty, they would have given Schierman life in prison without parole – the only other punishment possible under Washington state law.

His attorney, Jim Conroy, said he would move to appeal the death penalty verdict. Another attorney will handle that case, which goes directly to the state Supreme Court.

“It’s sad that we still have the death penalty,” Conroy said. “It’s arcane, barbaric.”

Schierman is the first person since 2001 to come to the state’s death row, where he will join eight other men. James Elledge, 58, of Snohomish County, was the last person to be executed in Washington, according to the Washington state Department of Corrections web site. He was given a lethal injection in 2001.

At a family press conference May 5 when the verdict was announced, Vita Petrus, the sister of Olga and Lyubov, said their Christian faith told them it was not right for them to hold a grudge against Schierman. She said the family has forgiven him.

But they were upset when the convicted felon failed to offer an apology for his actions, and in that sense, the death penalty was the right call made by the jury, they told reporters. Pavel Milkin chastised Schierman for the crimes at the May 27 hearing.

“It’s a bad thing,” Milkin said. “A big man can take a life of little boys and two ladies. He never (apologized) for what he (did). You will take responsibility for what you do.”

King County Deputy Prosecutor Scott O’Toole said that throughout the trial, he was most impressed with Leonid Milkin’s “serenity.”

Milkin still serves in the National Guard and hopes to rebuild the Slater Avenue home –and a family.

But for now, he just glad it’s finally over.

“Justice has been done,” Milkin said as he left the courthouse May 5 after the jury recommended death.