ALBAWABA- Viktoria Nasyrova, a 47-year-old Brooklyn resident and Russian national, was sentenced to more than two decades in prison on Wednesday for trying to murder a friend and steal her identity using drug-laced cheesecake.
Nasyrova was convicted in February 2023 on charges including second-degree attempted murder and petit larceny. She had visited the home of Olga Tsvyk in 2016, bringing with her a slice of cheesecake laced with the sedative phenazepam.
After eating it, Tsvyk fell unconscious and was later found surrounded by pills in her bed and was taken to a hospital. When she got home, Tsvyk's passport, work authorization card and other valuables worth over $3,000 were missing. Federal law enforcement agents found that the pills and the cheesecake residue contained phenazepam.
Queens County District Attorney Melinda Katz called Nasyrova “a ruthless and calculating con artist”.
Nasyrova’s attorney, Jose Nieves, said he had filed an appeal, calling the 21-year sentence “excessive and inappropriate”. Nieves said the appeal would focus on procedural errors and evidentiary issues that occurred during the trial. Phenazepam is a prescription drug in Russia but "does not currently have an accepted medical use in the United States," according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
