A New York City woman has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for poisoning a woman who physically resembled her with sedative-laced cheesecake in an alleged bid to steal her identity.
Viktoria Nasyrova, 47, who faces a separate murder investigation in her native Russia, reportedly shouted a defiant “f**k you!” at Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder on Wednesday after learning her fate for attempted murder and assault, The New York Post reported.
Her sentencing came nearly seven years after she carried out the failed murder plot that left a Queens woman — who prosecutors said physically resembled Nasyrova and also spoke Russian — briefly hospitalised.
“A ruthless and calculating con artist is going to prison for a long time for trying to murder her way to personal profit and gain,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement Wednesday. “Thankfully, the victim survived the attack on her life and we were able to deliver justice to her.”
Nasyrova was convicted back in February of attempted murder in the second degree, attempted assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, unlawful imprisonment in the first degree and petit larceny.
Her victim, Olga Tsvyk, said Nasyrova gave her the cheesecake at her home in August 2016. Shortly after eating it she became sick and passed out. She was discovered the following day unconscious in her bed with pills scattered around her body, as if she had attempted to kill herself, authorities said.
After coming to in a hospital, Tsvyk said she returned home to find her passport and employment authorisation card missing, along with a gold ring and other valuables. A later test on cheesecake residue left behind in the dessert container identified phenazepam, a highly potent sedative that was also found in her system, authorities said.
“God gave me life when Viktoria Nasyrova tried to end my life,” Tsvyk told the court in a victim impact statement, according to The Post. “For her, it was an easy thing to try and take the life of another person.”
Others have come forward also accusing Nasyrova of theft, drugging and even murder in recent years.
In 2019, while awaiting sentencing in jail for Tsvyk’s poisoning, she took a plea deal in another case where she was accused of drugging and robbing men that she met on dating apps. She was sentenced to 90 days in jail, which at the time was considered time served, the Post reported.
Nasyrova also remains accused of murdering and stealing from a 54-year-old woman in Russia back in 2014.
Alla Alekseenko’s daughter, in an interview with CBS News in 2017, said Nasyrova stole from her mother, murdered her and then burned her body to cover up her crimes. Nasyrova then fled to New York City using a fake passport, she said.
Interpol issued a red notice for Nasyrova, which is a request for worldwide law enforcement to locate and provisionally arrest a person. Russia plans to request that she be sent back to stand trial for Alekseenko’s murder as well, CBS News previously reported.