Skuba convicted of pot robbery, murder in Santa Cruz

SANTA CRUZ – A jury found Stewart Skuba, 34, guilty of murder for the 2009 death of Elias Sorokin on Friday.

The former Westside hairdresser was accused of robbing, kidnapping and killing 29-year-old Sorokin on July 21, 2009 in a Felix Street garage and dumping the body off a North Coast cliff. His body has never been found but his burned truck was discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains several days after he was reported missing.

Jurors returned with guilty verdicts on the murder and robbery charges, but was unable to reach a verdict on two kidnapping counts after two-and-a-half days of deliberations, Jessica M. Pasko reports in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Stuart Skuba, left, was convicted Friday of robbing and killing Elias Sorokin in Santa Cruz. In this Sentinel file photo, Skuba, Kenneth Clamp and Adam Hunt appear in court in February 2010. Hunt was found innocent of murder, while Clamp was convicted. Photo by Shmuel Thaler/Santa Cruz Sentinel

“It was a very important verdict for everyone in the community,” said Nick Sorokin, Elias’ father. “Clearly Stewart Skuba was a predator on top of being a murderer … there’s one less dangerous person on the streets.”

Throughout the trial, prosecutor Rob Wade maintained that Skuba had planned to rob Sorokin, said greed led Skuba to hatch a plan to rob the victim, who was traveling between the East Bay and Los Angeles when he stopped in Santa Cruz. Wade has maintained that Skuba planned to disable Sorokin with chloroform and steal his 10 pounds of marijuana. The chloroform plot failed, according to Wade, and Sorokin was beaten unconsciousness in Skuba’s garage.

“I’m pleased on behalf of Elias Sorokin’s family,” said Wade after the verdict.

Defense attorney Charlie Stevens argued that another man, Adam Hunt, killed Sorokin and that Skuba panicked and called another man, Kenneth Clamp, for assistance.

In a separate trial earlier this year, Hunt was found not guilty of murder for Sorokin’s death but was convicted of robbery. In that same trial, Clamp was found guilty of murder. He has not yet been sentenced in that case.

Stevens could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon.

Judge Paul Marigonda scheduled Skuba’s sentencing for Feb. 23. At the time, attorneys also will discuss a date for re-trying the charges on which the jury failed to reach a verdict.

The prosecution’s case against Skuba relied largely on the testimony of a woman who was living with Skuba at the time, Kristin Roberts. She pleaded guilty to robbery for attempting to use credit cards stolen from Sorokin and was sentenced Thursday to two years on that count, which the court ruled she’d already served at this point.