NY man killed Lake Mary man who was dating ex, prosecutors say

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — Channel 9 has uncovered new details about why prosecutors think a New York man murdered a Lake Mary businessman.

Charles Butler's accused killer is still in a New York jail Monday.

WFTV broke the news Friday that Butler's body was found in upstate New York, and the prime suspect, Mikhail Chernyaev, was arrested over the weekend.

The body of Butler was found in October, but not identified until last week.

Prosecutors claim Butler was killed in his girlfriend's apartment.

Chernyaev, 46, showed little emotion has he faced a judge in King County, N.Y., for the first time since his arrest on second-degree murder charges. He said nothing as he learned he will remain in a New York jail until Tuesday when the court assigns him an attorney.

The King County prosecutor's office maintains Chernyaev was upset that Lake Mary businessman Butler was dating his ex-wife, Anna Lioznov, the mother of his son.

The prosecutors said Chernyaev entered Lioznov's apartment in mid-September, stabbed Butler in the back and strangled him.

The office said Chernyaev drove Butler's body 90 miles to Port Jervis, N.Y., and dumped his body in the Delaware River.

In February, Lioznov said she saw Chernyaev on her building's video surveillance coming and going the day Butler vanished.

She said she didn't think it was unusual because Chernyaev kept his cars at her building and it was common for him to come and go.

"I saw my neighbors, I saw my ex-husband," Lioznov said.

Lioznov said he was a construction worker and had to go back and forth.

Last week, three New York City homicide detectives were in the WFTV newsroom to review raw video from this story.

Channel 9 handed over the interview with Lioznov in its entirety, and just 48 hours later investigators made an arrest.

Butler was no stranger to New York City. The central Florida businessman and father of three had made the trip dozens of times, but his trip in September to see his new girlfriend would be his last.

Christina Eldert worked for Butler. She said she was there the day Butler got a phone call from Chernyaev, the man being held on charges of killing Butler and dumping his body.

"I think he was listening to his heart more than his sense," Eldert said.

"I remember the look on his face when I told him that this was some psycho stuff and there was a little fear on his face," Eldert said.

In a separate interview with Eyewitness News in her Brooklyn apartment, Lioznov verified the phone call from Chernyaev to Butler.

"'It's temporary, it's temporary, and she's going to come back to me because I loved her and I will love her,'" Lioznov said Chernyaev told Butler.

Not long after that call, while Lioznov was at work, New York prosecutors said Chernyaev entered Lioznov's apartment, killed Butler, and then dumped his body in the Delaware River.

WFTV is working to find out why it took so long to identify the body, and if that delay may have allowed evidence to slip away.

WFTV