- A Russian woman was convicted after attempting to kill her look-alike and assume her identity.
- She poisoned her victim with a cheesecake laced with a Russian drug and staged it as a suicide.
A woman who fled Russia after being investigated for murder has now been found guilty of attempting to murder a New York woman who looks like her.
A jury convicted 47-year-old Viktoria Nasyrova of attempted murder in the second degree, according to a Thursday press release from the Queens Assistant District Attorney's Office.
Her conviction followed a 2014 incident in which she was accused of drugging and killing a different friend, Alla Aleksenko, in Russia. CBS's "48 Hours" investigated Nasyrova's crimes in 2017. According to the program, authorities questioned Nasyrova after the disappearance of Aleksenko, but did not immediately arrest her.
Nasyrova wasn't charged until later that year, but she had already fled the country.
"I am not a killer. …I'm woman. Only woman," Nasyrova said in an interview with "48 Hours."
Nasyrova's New York conviction comes nearly seven years prosecutors said she went to the home of 35-year-old Olga Svyk, an eyelash technician, with an "eyelash emergency," Queens Assistant District Attorney Konstantinos Litourgis said, CBS News reported. Nasyrova brought a piece of cheesecake — which was laced with a Russian poison — as a thank you to Svyk, prosecutors said in the trial, per CBS.
The plan was "to isolate Olga Svyk, to get her alone in her room, to poison her, to try to kill her, and to take her identity," Queens Assistant District Attorney Konstantinos Litourgis said during opening statements.
Svyk soon fell ill. The next day a friend discovered her unconscious in her bed with pills scattered around her, as if to emulate a suicide, CBS News reported. Svyk survived the ordeal, however, and went on to testify in the case.
"Almost $4,000 in cash, a red purse, a cherished ring, and, most importantly, her Ukrainian passport and her U.S.-issued employment authorization card," were found missing, Litourgis said.
Nasyrova, who's been detained at Rikers' Island since 2017, will appear for a sentencing hearing on March 21. Nasyrova was also convicted of attempted assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, unlawful imprisonment in the first degree, and petit larceny. She faces up to 25 years in prison.
"The jury saw through the deception and schemes of the defendant," District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a Thursday press release. "She laced a slice of cheesecake with a deadly drug so she could steal her unsuspecting victim's most valuable possession, her identity. Fortunately, her victim survived and the poison led right back to the culprit. The defendant deserves to be held accountable for her crime with a long term of incarceration."