Boss allegedly killed workers who wanted raises

updated 5:46 a.m. ET July 31, 2007

EAST POINT, Ga. - The owner of a car dealership has been accused of killing two employees because they kept asking for pay raises.

Rolandas Milinavicius has been charged with two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of Inga Contreras, 25, and Martynas Simokaitis, 28.

All three are from the eastern European nation of Lithuania but had been living in Atlanta, authorities said.

Milinavicius, who was having financial problems, told police he shot the two Thursday after they kept asking for more pay, said police in East Point, which is just outside Atlanta.

“He told us that he was under a lot of stress,” East Point police Capt. Russell Popham said. “Unfortunately, he decided to take his anger out with violence.”

Export business to Lithuania
Milinavicius, who had been living in Alpharetta, started RM Auto International two years ago, hoping to meet the demand for American cars in Lithuania. He began shipping cars and later hired the two victims as his only employees.

Milinavicius, 38, turned himself in two days after the shootings and confessed to the killings, Popham said.

“As I understand, the employees were not really happy about the pay, and they had questioned him about it over the course of time,” Popham said. “That morning he said he just snapped.”

Contreras and Simokaitis were cremated and an informal memorial service was held at Simokaitis’ cousin’s apartment over the weekend. The remains were to be flown to Lithuania on Tuesday.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” the cousin, Jaunius Simokaitis, of Fayetteville, said Monday. “If he was having money problems, these two would have been the ones to help him get out of debt. They would have helped him make that money.”

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