Russian woman Victoria Nasyrova found guilty of poisoning her friend in New York

Russian-born criminal Viktoria Nasyrova, who is accused of poisoning a friend who looks like her with a slice of cheesecake, was found guilty on February 8 of attempted murder as part of an identity theft plan. New York Post.

The jury's decision in Queens followed a week and a half trial. During the hearing, prosecutors said Nasyrova, 47, casually left her DNA on a cheesecake box and then blabbed about the crime in several prison interviews.

“The jury saw the deception and schemes of the defendant,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said Thursday. “She slipped a lethal drug into a slice of cheesecake to steal from her unsuspecting victim her most precious asset—her identity. Fortunately, the victim survived and the poison led to the perpetrator.”

Nasyrova's lawyer attempted to deadlock the prosecution by claiming that the victim, lash stylist Olga Tsvik, initially told an NYPD detective that she had accidentally picked a piece of dessert. And that means his client was playing Russian roulette when she ate the other two.

But the jury didn't buy it. They found the alleged Russian-born serial poisoner guilty of attempted murder, assault and other charges in a crime committed in August 2016.

Nasyrova will be sentenced on March 21, she faces up to 25 years in prison

“We are disappointed with the jury's verdict, but we respect it and are looking into our next steps,” explained Christopher W. Hoyt, Nasyrova's attorney.

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The case of a Russian poisoner with a horrific past landed in New York courts after a grand jury indicted Nasyrova in 2018 for trying to poison Zwick at her Forest Hills home while getting eyelash extensions two years earlier.

According to Zwick, Nasyrova, who fled to the Big Apple after killing a Russian neighbor and setting her body on fire in 2014, said she wanted to bring “some famous cheesecake from a famous bakery” as a gift.

Nasyrova quickly ate two pieces herself, and then offered her a third. It was in him, according to prosecutors, that the Russian tranquilizer phenazepam was mixed.

Zwick confirmed that after about 20 minutes she became extremely ill. She vomited on the floor and soon lost consciousness.

Prosecutors said Nasyrova stole her friend's passport, cash and other property. And then she scattered phenazepam pills around Zwick's underwear body to make it look like a suicide attempt.

Eventually Zwick came to her senses. Even though the doctors said she was minutes away from a heart attack.

“Everything in this case was done very carefully and very methodically,” Assistant District Attorney Konstantinos Liturgis told the jury. “The accused is a very intelligent person.”

Nasyrova insisted the cheesecake story was just a misunderstanding

“The last time I saw Olga, she already felt bad. She said she either ate something or got food poisoning,” she said in an interview from prison. In court, Nasyrova refused to testify.

To back up their claim that Nasyrova enjoys poisoning her acquaintances, the prosecution called 54-year-old Ruben Borukhov as a witness. He said that Nasyrova drugged him during a date after they met on a Russian dating app.

Borukhov told jurors that he passed out after eating drugged fish that Nasyrova had cooked. According to him, he does not remember the following weeks, including a couple of trips to the hospital.

When the ability to think returned to him, Borukhov discovered the loss of his new watch and an American Express bill with unfamiliar expenses in the amount of about $ 2600.

The accusation, among other things, caused the daughter of Alla Alekseenko, a Russian woman, in whose murder Nasyrova was accused in 2014. The daughter, Hope Ford, testified that someone ransacked her mother's house after her death and stole everything from a toothbrush to family gold.

Ford said she encountered the scammer during a police operation following her mother's death. Russian police arrested Nasyrova and interrogated her, but later released her.

She was eventually charged with murder by the Russian authorities the same year. Interpol issued a high-priority “red notice” for her arrest when it learned that Nasyrova had fled the country.

An NYPD squad on warrants finally arrested her in 2017. After the verdict, it seems that luck has finally turned its back on the criminal.