The Trials of Anton Vilkis

Despite reporting on him for over 15 years I never had actually met him face to face. The only times we ever were in the same room was when he stood at the defendants table for a crime, he swears he never committed. He was the subject of my first article for the Century Newspaper. It was originally a small case and was considered grunt work for a fresh-out-of-college junior crime reporter. It's a strange twist of fate that I find myself outside his home.

Anton Vilkis, a former police detective, stood before a trial of his peers on March 23rd, 2002, and was found guilty of burglary, grand theft, and assault with a deadly weapon at the San Francisco Superior Courthouse. Although he pleaded innocent and has maintained that plea to this day, he did not appeal the trial further, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. I sat in on the trial as a junior reporter for Century and reported on the crime the following day. Little did I know, this guilty verdict would be the reason Vilkis could not be found guilty of the murders of Robert Knight and his wife Paulina Knight.

On March 14th, 2002, at 10:57 P.M. Anton Vilkis supposedly entered the home of Andre Jones and stole a signed painting from the deceased painter, Otis Oldfield, valued at just over $2,000-dollars. Vilkis had hit Mr. Jones in the back of the head with a baseball bat, knocking him unconscious immediately. Vilkis then made off with the painting in the back of his Honda Odyssey and headed straight to his home only a block away. Mr. Jones' security cameras caught the whole ordeal. The video showed Anton Vilkis hitting Andre Jones in the back of the head with a baseball bat in their backyard and then exiting the home carrying a painting. The video was timestamped at 10:58 P.M. He was caught trying the next morning with the painting in the trunk of his old Honda Odyssey. It is believed that Vilkis entered the home of Mr. Jones prior to the crime under the guise of being a police officer and took advantage of the old man's trust.

Anton Vilkis was assigned a public defender by the name of John Walker who did the best he could on such short notice but because of the simplicity of the case, the trial and proceedings were finished in only 9 short days. Anton Vilkis plead innocent and, even after being found guilty, has not changed his plea.

2 hours away, the Sacramento Police Department was trying to solve the murders of Robert Knight and his wife Paulina in Robert's office at the Hilton and Co. Law Firm. Their bodies were found on March 15th at 10:21 P.M. with the time of death placed at around 10:00 P.M. on March 14th. Robert Knight was killed by a blow to the back of his head from a statue the victim kept on his desk. His wife stumbled upon the scene and was choked to death shortly after. Fingerprints were found on both the murder weapon and the wife's neck. These fingerprints were not identified until Anton Vilkis' trial had concluded and his fingerprints had been databased.

Anton Vilkis fingerprints were on the murder weapon and the neck of Paulina Knight.

The glaring problem with this is that at 10:00 P.M. on March 14th, Anton Vilkis was breaking in to the home of Andre Jones could not possibly be murdering Robert Knight at the same time, 2 hours away. The trial was drawn out for over a year with more and more evidence pouring in against Vilkis: including an eyewitness testimony from the secretary of Hilton and Co. Law Firm placing Vilkis at the scene of the crime and traces of the victim's blood found on Vilkis' clothes. The straw that broke the camel's back was the evidence that found that the video evidence showing Anton Vilkis break in to Andre Jones' home had been doctored and the timestamp was faked. Anton Vilkis did enter Andre Jones home but there is no idea when this crime had occurred.

I reported on the trial for Century over the course of the year which led to my rise as a star reporter for the paper and I was considered the go to expert on the case. Anton had hired fired his public defender after he was found guilty and hired James Gruel of the Law Offices of James Gruel, one of the best defense attorneys in the state. Gruel received a ton of backlash for taking on this case but a sources state that Vilkis paid Gruel over $20,000-dollars over the course of the trial, which casted more doubt as to why he would try to steal a $2,000-dollar painting.