A Russian woman is fighting for her freedom in a New York courtroom after being accused of killing her lookalike friend with a poisoned cheesecake and some chicken soup.
Prosecutors alleged this week that Viktoria Nasyrova “concocted a cold and calculated plan” to get her friend Olga Tsvyk alone and then rob her, kill her, and steal her identity.
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“Evidence will show Olga Tsvyk was a pretty good lookalike for the defendant,” Assistant District Attorney Konstantinos Litourgis told jurors during her opening statement on Monday. She added that Tsvyk, an eyelash stylist from Ukraine, was an easy mark because she had no family in the United States to check in on her.
Nasyrova and Tsvyk met at a salon where Tsvyk worked in 2016.
Litourgis told jurors that investigators found Nasyrova’s DNA at the crime scene, including the box that the apparently poisoned cheesecake came in.
“The DNA that was on that container belongs to Viktoria Nasyrova,” the prosecutor said. “So on top of everything you’re going to hear from civilian witnesses, you’re going to learn that there’s a cheesecake container that had Phenazepam in it and also had the defendant’s DNA on it.”
Phenazepam is a benzodiazepine drug that was developed in the Soviet Union in 1975. It is now largely produced in Russia and is used to treat mental disorders such as schizophrenia. It can cause death in some cases of overdose or if combined with other drugs.
Prosecutors allege that Nasyrova, 47, went to her friend’s house to bring her some tranquilizer-laced cheesecake. Tsvyk got sick almost immediately after having the cake and started to vomit and hallucinate. The next day, Nasyrova came back with chicken soup. After eating it, Tsvyk went into a coma.
She was found in a nightgown with pills scattered around her in an attempt to make the scene look like a suicide, prosecutors said. Tsvyk spent three days in a hospital.
“She came to realize many of her valuables were gone from her room — almost $4,000 in cash, a red purse, a cherished ring, and, most importantly, her Ukrainian passport and her U.S.-issued employment authorization card,” Litourgis said.
Nasyrova pleaded not guilty. Her lawyer Christopher Hoyt told jurors that the trial is “not an open-and-shut case.”
“We are here today because Ms. Nasyrova is not guilty of these charges,” he said.
In March 2017, Nasyrova was charged with attempted murder, burglary, attempted assault, assault, reckless endangerment, grand larceny, larceny, and possession of stolen property.
If convicted, she could spend 25 years in prison.
The woman had a long list of run-ins with law enforcement heading into her trial. She is wanted in Russia on murder charges in connection to the 2014 death of Alla Aleksenko. After allegedly swindling Aleksenko out of thousands of dollars, Nasyrova killed the woman and seduced the lead detective in her case, who helped her escape to the United States, according to authorities. Nasyrova has denied the allegations.
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She was also charged with drugging and robbing two men in Brooklyn. She pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor connected to the charges and spent 90 days behind bars.
