It was late summer in New York when Viktoria Nasyrova came to the home of a fellow Russian-speaking woman in the Forest Hills area, bringing along some cheesecake.
The two women shared more than a language: Both had dark hair and a similar skin tone, and were of a similar age: Olga Tsvyk was 35, while Nasyrova was around 40.
Soon after eating the dessert, Tsvyk began to feel ill and went to lie down. Her last memory before losing consciousness was seeing Nasyrova walking around her room, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said.
The next day, a friend found Tsvyk unconscious in bed, with pills scattered around her body, as if she had tried to kill herself, prosecutors said. It was only after she returned home from the hospital that she discovered that her valuables and documents — including her passport, employment authorization card and a gold ring — were missing, prosecutors said.
“She laced a slice of cheesecake with a deadly drug so she could steal her unsuspecting victim’s most valuable possession, her identity,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in February.
Law enforcement agents analyzed remnants of the cheesecake found in a container at the house and discovered that the dessert had been laced with phenazepam, a highly potent sedative, prosecutors said.
On Wednesday — on the eve of National Look-Alike Day — a judge sentenced Nasyrova to 21 years in prison, which comes after a jury convicted her of several charges, including attempted murder, assault and theft. He also ordered five years’ post-release supervision.
Following the sentencing, Katz described Nasyrova as a “ruthless and calculating con artist” who tried to “murder her way to personal profit and gain.”
“Thankfully, the victim survived the attack on her life and we were able to deliver justice to her,” Katz said.
Nasyrova’s lawyer, Jose L. Nieves, said in an email that his team had filed an appeal against the verdict and sentencing. He described the 21-year sentence against his client, a Russian national, as “excessive and inappropriate.”
It’s not the first time that a case has been brought against someone who allegedly planned to kill their doppelganger: In January, German police and prosecutors said they believed a young woman had killed another woman to whom she bore a strong resemblance as she tried to fake her own death.
The two women shared more than a language: Both had dark hair and a similar skin tone, and were of a similar age: Olga Tsvyk was 35, while Nasyrova was around 40.
Soon after eating the dessert, Tsvyk began to feel ill and went to lie down. Her last memory before losing consciousness was seeing Nasyrova walking around her room, the Queens District Attorney’s Office said.
The next day, a friend found Tsvyk unconscious in bed, with pills scattered around her body, as if she had tried to kill herself, prosecutors said. It was only after she returned home from the hospital that she discovered that her valuables and documents — including her passport, employment authorization card and a gold ring — were missing, prosecutors said.
“She laced a slice of cheesecake with a deadly drug so she could steal her unsuspecting victim’s most valuable possession, her identity,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in February.
Law enforcement agents analyzed remnants of the cheesecake found in a container at the house and discovered that the dessert had been laced with phenazepam, a highly potent sedative, prosecutors said.
On Wednesday — on the eve of National Look-Alike Day — a judge sentenced Nasyrova to 21 years in prison, which comes after a jury convicted her of several charges, including attempted murder, assault and theft. He also ordered five years’ post-release supervision.
Following the sentencing, Katz described Nasyrova as a “ruthless and calculating con artist” who tried to “murder her way to personal profit and gain.”
“Thankfully, the victim survived the attack on her life and we were able to deliver justice to her,” Katz said.
Nasyrova’s lawyer, Jose L. Nieves, said in an email that his team had filed an appeal against the verdict and sentencing. He described the 21-year sentence against his client, a Russian national, as “excessive and inappropriate.”
It’s not the first time that a case has been brought against someone who allegedly planned to kill their doppelganger: In January, German police and prosecutors said they believed a young woman had killed another woman to whom she bore a strong resemblance as she tried to fake her own death.
