DA declines charges in Lackawaxen homicide

No chance for conviction: witness was drunk and inconsistent Tonkin decides MILFORD — Pike County District Attorney Ray Tonkin has declined to file charges in the death of homocide victim, Vagif Alijev. Alijev was found dead from a stab wound in a cabin at Camp Chayoiel Hamelech (King Soldiers), on Masthope Plank Road in Lackawaxen Township, on July 19, 2009. State police reported that Alijev, was recently identified by Interpol and the FBI as an illegal immigrant from Azerbaijan. Police said he was holding a Lithuanian passport, which Tonkin said was a fake identification. An autopsy determined that he died of a single stab wound in his left side. According to a proposed criminal complaint and affidavit submitted to the district attorney’s office, the Pennsylvania State Police determined that Alijev, a worker at the camp, engaged in a fight with another camp worker, Isroil Madiyev. The proposed criminal complaint identified Madiyev as the only suspect in the death of Alijev. State police said an “intense investigation” was conducted by the Criminal Investigation Unit at Blooming Grove, which resulted in the arrest of three suspects in the Philadelphia area. They have been held at the Pike County Jail as federal immigration detainees. State police filed their criminal complaint with Tonkin last September. In declining to prosecute Madiyev in the death, Tonkin cited numerous factors. First, the primary witness in the case, who is also thought to be illegally in the country, was admittedly intoxicated at the time of the incident and had given inconsistent versions of the events that night. Tonkin indicated that the lack of credibility of the main potential witness would present significant problems in overcoming potential defenses at trial, which could include some indication the deceased may have been the initial aggressor in the altercation. Given these obstacles, Tonkin concluded, there was not even a remote chance that the case would end up in a conviction. The suspect, Isroil Madiyev, is currently held at the Pike County Correctional Facility on a detainer from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau pending deportation as an illegal immigrant.