Viktoria Nasyrova Attempted Murder By Cheesecake Poisoning Trial Begins

Prosecutors said that Nasyrova went to Tsvyk’s home in Queens under the guise of urgently requesting her services as an eyelash technician. She arrived at Tsvyk’s home with slices of cheesecake and insisted that the woman eat it.   

According to prosecutors, the cheesecake that Tsvyk ate was laced with a Russian tranquilizer called phenazepam. Litourgis told the jury that Tsvyk immediately became sick after eating the dessert and was “violently vomiting.”

“This woman was floating in and out of consciousness, she was dizzy, she was disoriented, she didn’t know where she was, and she was terrified that there was something seriously wrong with her,” Litourgis said.

Prosecutors said that Tsvyk’s friends found her the next day, weak on her bed with pills scattered around her — which Nasyrova is accused of staging to make it seem as if she attempted to kill herself.

According to Litourgis, Nasyrova was going after Tsvyk’s identity. Among valuables missing from the home after the poisoning were Tsvyk’s passport and employment authorization card, which showed proof of her legal status in the US.

Litourgis said that Nasyrova had fled Russia between 2014 and 2015 in order to distance herself from a criminal investigation. She was motivated to steal Tsvyk’s identity in order to further evade officials and not return to Russia, he said.