Daughter charged in fatal Brooklyn stabbing of dad confesses: ‘I bashed his head in with a hammer’

The Brooklyn woman arrested in a lethal family dispute confessed in gruesome detail to the brutal killing of her father and the near-fatal stabbing of her kid sister, the Daily News has learned.

“I came out of the bedroom and I saw my father on (the) couch sleeping, and I bashed (his) head in with a hammer,” read the chilling admission from Nikki Secondino, as provided by a law enforcement source. “I grabbed my favorite German steel knife and stabbed the s— out of him. My sister came out of her bedroom and tried to stop me.

“And then I stabbed her in the back, neck and stomach. I wanted them dead … I didn’t plan it, I didn’t need to. I don’t remember where I put the knife, but I’m sure you’ll find out.”

The 22-year-old murder suspect said the same fate awaited the neighbor who called 911 if she had ever laid eyes on the woman. The neighbor recounted slamming her door shut after seeing the dying Carlo Secondino lying in the blood-spattered hallway outside her apartment early Thursday before dialing for help.

Sister Liana, 19, was critically injured by the murder suspect during the pre-dawn rampage, police said.

The fatal clash was the culmination of years of family fights that repeatedly brought police to their door, police and co-workers said Friday, although the exact motive behind the killing remained unclear.

Cops had been called to Carlo Secondino’s home on 17th Ave. in Bensonhurst at least three times in the year leading up to the deadly Thursday attack, cops said.

Nikki, who is transgender, is facing murder and attempted murder charges for fatally stabbing her 61-year-old father and wounding her younger sibling during an early morning fight inside their apartment. The defendant was taken to the hospital for treatment, postponing her Friday arraignment on murder charges.

When cops arrived at her home Thursday, Nikki told police that two men had entered her apartment and attacked them. But investigating officers were skeptical about the home invasion story, and the wounded Liana told cops “my sister stabbed me” before Nikki admitted to the killing, police sources said.

The killing brought a grisly end to years of discord between the father and the two daughters.

“He was always having fights with Nikki,” said Yadira Gomez, a co-partner of Mike’s Diner where Carlo worked as a delivery man. “I know there was always fights, him with her. During the day he would always say, ‘She’s crazy, she’s got some issues, problems. She don’t work.’”

The fights involved Carlo and both of his daughters and became so bad that police were called, cops and neighbors said.

Police came to the home on Dec. 22, 2021, after Carlo was assaulted by one of his daughters, police said. It was not immediately clear which daughter attacked him.

Then, on July 15, Carlo was accused of threatening to kill his youngest daughter, Liana, police said. He was charged with harassment and cops did a search of the home to make sure he didn’t have any access to firearms.

Secondino’s alleged behavior was a far cry from the helpful, friendly man described by his co-workers.

“Everybody loved that guy here. That’s a big loss for everybody,” Gomez said. “He was the one always in charge of everybody’s birthday here. He would come with the cake, the cookies. It’s very sad.”

Carlo was also quite supportive of her daughter’s transition, Gomez said.

“He supported her. He paid for everything, for her surgery,” Gomez recalled. “He supported her 100%. That was his daughter. (He told her) ‘Whatever you want to do I’ll be here with you.’”

In a nearly two-hour long interview recorded in 2020 about her transition journey, Nikki even said her father always had her back.

“My dad has a strong personality, he didn’t let it affect him,” Nikki said, regarding her decision to undergo gender-affirming surgery. “My mom took it a lot harder.”

Before her parents got divorced, Nikki and her sister were raised in suburban New Jersey. She came out as transgender in middle school, and began hormone therapy in high school, she said. Through it all, her parents did everything they could to help her and ward off any critics.

“They were people in our town who would say ‘How can you do that to your child? It’s a sin.’” she recalled, describing the time she began hormone therapy. “My dad is very Italian and he had used to say ‘If you think everything in the bible is true, you’re crazy.’”

When cops were called to the apartment at 5 a.m. Thursday, Carlo was dead, the victim of multiple stab wounds, cops said. Both daughters also suffered knife wounds and were taken to the hospital, where Liana was listed in critical condition.

Nikki initially told police that black-clad intruders, a white man and a black man, fled the crime scene. Cops began a search for the suspects before her story fell apart and she became a suspect, police sources said.

Detectives found no video surveillance outside the home that supported the home invasion account and Nikki had cuts on her hand consistent with a knife slipping during the stabbing, sources said.