Olga Tsvyk on Good Morning America in 2018 (via GMA/YouTube screengrab), Viktoria Nasyrova appears in court (image via CBS 2 screengrab)
There was nothing sweet about this cheesecake.
A 47-year-old New York woman from Russia, described in various reports as a “dominatrix,” was found guilty in a Queens courtroom Thursday of trying to poison and murder a fellow Russian woman who looked like her all the way back in August 2016.
Prosecutors said and jurors agreed that Viktoria Nasyrova devised a Trojan Horse-type plot, appearing at the door of then-35-year-old eyelash stylist and friend Olga Tsvyk with a container of cheesecake in hand. That cheesecake, prosecutors said, was actually tainted with a powerful Russian benzodiazepine, Phenazepam. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement after the verdict that Nasyrova took the victim’s passport and employment authorization card in a bid to steal Tsvyk’s identity.
“The jury saw through the deception and schemes of the defendant. She laced a slice of cheesecake with a deadly drug so she could steal her unsuspecting victim’s most valuable possession, her identity,” Katz said. “Fortunately, her victim survived and the poison led right back to the culprit. The defendant deserves to be held accountable for her crime with a long term of incarceration.”
Prosecutors said that Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn resident attempted murder at Tsvyk’s Forest Hills home on Aug. 28, 2016 and tried to make it look like a suicide.
“According to the evidence, on August 28, 2016, the Nasyrova visited the Forest Hills home of the then-35-year-old victim bearing a gift of cheesecake. At that time, the victim and Nasyrova resembled one another—both had dark hair, the same skin complexion and other similar physical traits. Additionally, they were both Russian speakers,” said a press release sketching out the facts of the incident and its aftermath. “The Queens woman ate the dessert given to her by the defendant and afterwards began to feel sick and laid down. Before passing out, the woman’s last memory was of seeing the defendant walking around her room. The following day, the victim’s friend discovered her unconscious in her bed. Later, it was discovered that there were pills scattered around her body – as if the woman had attempted to kill herself.”
As Law&Crime reported at the outset of the long-awaited trial, Assistant District Attorney Konstantinos Litourgis told jurors that Nasyrova’s plot was “cold and calculated.”
“This is not a joke. It’s not just a story. It’s not an accident and it’s not a mistake,” the prosecutor said. “This defendant intended to kill this woman and steal her identity.”
After Tsvyk was released from the hospital, she started to put the pieces together of what exactly had happened to her and why. She noticed her passport and other identification were gone. Other items, including a gold ring, were also missing.
“She called me, ‘I’m going to give you very delicious cheesecake,'” Tsvyk told Good Morning America in 2018. “When I eat the cake right away I feel very, very sick.”
Doctors reportedly told the victim she was 40 minutes away from death at the time she was found unconscious in her bed by her landlord.
Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show that Nasyrova was convicted of attempted murder, attempted assault with intent to seriously injure, unlawful imprisonment, petit larceny, and assault causing another person to become “unconsciousness or physically impaired by administering a drug to that person without his or her consent.” Court records also show that Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth C. Holder set sentencing for 9 a.m. on March 21. She faces up to 25 years behind bars.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Phenazepam is available by prescription in Russia but has “recently emerged on the illicit drug market in the United Kingdom and United States” and is often used recreationally. In this instance, prosecutors said, the sedative was used for attempted murder.
Nasyrova allegedly fled Russia in 2014 before she could be charged with the drugging and murder of a different friend, this one a man.
During a 2018 interview with 48 Hours while she was detained at Rikers Island, the so-called dominatrix Nasyrova was also asked whether it was true that she had also drugged and robbed men she met through dating sites. Nasyrova denied the allegations and said (according to a translation), “I would be happy to comment on that, but I can’t talk about it.”
Questioned about whether she tried to kill Tsvyk, Nasyrova acknowledged she knew the woman and gave her cheesecake.
“I know whom you mean. I know this young woman. I can tell you that. I did not force her to eat it,” she said.
Watch the interview below:
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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