News Desk
NEW YORK: A woman in New York City accused of feeding poisoned cheesecake to her lookalike to steal her identity has been convicted of attempted murder, prosecutors said on Thursday.
A jury found Viktoria Nasyrova, 47, guilty of trying to kill Olga Tsvyk, 35, with cheesecake laced with a potent sedative and then stealing her passport and other belongings in August 2016, Queens district attorney Melinda Katz said in a news release.
The two women resemble each other, with both having dark hair and similar skin tones, and Nasyrova wanted to impersonate Tsvyk after killing her, the district attorney said.
The prosecutors said Nasyrova, originally from Russia, brought the cheesecake to Tsvyk’s home in the Forest Hills neighbourhood of Queens on 28 August 2016. After eating the cake, Tsvyk felt sick and lost consciousness, they added. When Tsvyk returned home after getting discharged from the hospital, she realized that her passport and work authorization card were missing, along with a gold ring and other valuables, prosecutors said.
Cheesecake was found to contain a potent sedative
Nasyrova was arrested after residue from the cheesecake container was tested and found to contain phenazepam, a powerful sedative.
Nasyrova was charged with attempted murder, assault and unlawful imprisonment and faces up to 25 years in prison when she is sentenced 21 March.
Nasyrova was also accused of fatally drugging a neighbour in her home country Russia in 2014. However, she denied killing the woman in a 2017 interview with CBS News.
