Queens woman found guilty of attempted murder in cheesecake poisoning identity theft case

A Queens woman who slipped her friend a slice of poisonous cheesecake has been convicted of trying to kill her doppelgänger to try and steal her identity.

The jury said Victoria Nasyrova is guilty of attempted murder and four of the five other charges brought against her on Wednesday, more than five years after she treated her friend to a seemingly delicious treat laced with a powerful toxin.

The prosecutor’s office said Nasyrova launched a “cold-blooded and calculated plan” in August 2016 to kill Olga Sivk, a salon worker, and impersonate an immigrant from Ukraine.

Nasyrova, 45, visited Sivk to have her eyelashes done and then gave her a cheesecake from a Brooklyn bakery that she added phenazepam, a kind of tranquilizer. She then fled with Sivk’s passport, employment record, gold ring, and cash in a heartless identity theft scam.

The next day, a friend found Swick unconscious in bed at her Forest Hills home, with pills scattered around the room, staged to look like a suicide scene.

“The jury saw the deceit and schemes of the defendant,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. “She filled a slice of cheesecake with a lethal drug to steal the most valuable thing from an unsuspecting victim – her identity. Luckily, her victim survived and the poison returned straight to the culprit. The defendant deserves to be held accountable for her crime with a long prison term.”

Prosecutors said Homeland Security agents checked leftover cheesecake found in the container and confirmed it was laced with a powerful sedative.

Swick not only survived, but testified against her former friend/client during her trial.

“I couldn’t get out of bed,” Sivk told jurors. “I had a terrible headache. My sister helped me to the bathroom. … At first it was very bad, but then it gradually got better.”

Sivk recalled how, after some time, she received a call from the accused of assault and asked about her condition.

“She said, ‘Olga, I can’t get through to you, what happened?’,” the victim said. “I told her I was in the hospital, I told her ‘you poisoned me and stole from me.’ She said, “Okay, then go to the police.”

When Nasyrova was arrested seven months later, the police allegedly returned some of the stolen items.

Prosecutors said the women looked alike. They both had dark hair, complexion, and other similar physical features.

Nasyrova was found guilty of attempted murder, attempted assault, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and attempted theft.

The Queens district attorney said Nasyrova is determined never to return to Russia, where she is wanted for a 2014 murder.

She moved to New York in 2014 from Russia to hide from authorities after allegedly killing 54-year-old Alla Aleksenko, whose charred remains were found in a grave in western Russia.

She first came to the attention of the NYPD after allegedly drugging and robbing men in Brooklyn she met on dating sites.

She will be sentenced on March 21st. She faces up to 25 years in prison.