A 95-year-old dementia affected person was charged Wednesday with bludgeoning an aged Holocaust survivor to demise inside a Brooklyn nursing house — as prosecutors revealed grisly new particulars of the surprising crime.
Galina Smirnova, wanting confused and frail in a wheelchair in court docket, was hit with homicide and weapons prices and ordered held on the Bellevue Hospital jail ward as prosecutors described the bloody scene on the Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Heart on Coney Island for the primary time.
Smirnova is accused of killing Nina Kravtsov, 89, with the pedal from her wheelchair Sunday evening.
“The nursing assistant noticed the sufferer laying on her mattress with extreme head accidents,” Brooklyn Assistant District Legal professional Ari Rottenberg stated in court docket. “There was blood everywhere in the room, and the sufferer or defendant was not responsive. And there’s a toilet personal for that room, and at the moment, it was noticed that the defendant was within the toilet.
“There was blood on the defendant’s robe and on her legs. The defendant was washing her palms within the toilet sink,” he stated. “There was a wheelchair within the room that had each leg and foot pedals eliminated. One of many pedals was on the ground within the room and there was blood protecting that pedal. The opposite foot pedal had been discarded out of the window and was on the bottom under.”
The prosecutor stated Smirnova had solely arrived on the nursing house on Friday, and was assigned to the identical room, with Kravtsov as her roommate.
A nurse on the facility stated the sufferer had been in mattress sleeping when she made her rounds at 8:55 p.m. Sunday — however when the employee returned one hour she discovered blood splattered in all places and Kravtsov immobile with a bloody gash to her head, Rottenberg stated.
Kravtsov, who misplaced her complete household through the Holocaust, was rushed to NYU Langone Brooklyn Hospital, the place she was pronounced lifeless after 5:30 a.m. Monday, prosecutors stated.
Smirnova’s lawyer, Authorized Help legal professional Erin Darcy, held off on requesting bail for her shopper earlier than her subsequent court docket look on Friday — which implies the aged accused killer can be held at Bellevue.
“I consider that we are going to be ready within the very close to future to current a strong bail utility to the court docket on behalf of our shopper, as soon as we will discover a cheap placement for her given her age and in the end our curiosity within the humanity of that,” Darcy advised Choose Orville Reynolds.
Prosecutors had requested that Smirnova be held with out bail.
In the meantime, the decide denied a request for a psychiatric examination, saying it was untimely.
Kravtsov’s daughter, Lucy Flom, advised The Submit this week that her mother was 5-years outdated when she misplaced her household within the Holocaust, and later grew to become a nurse in Ukraine earlier than migrating to the US.
She lived in Brighton Seashore together with her husband and ultimately moved into the nursing house following her husband’s demise, Flom stated.
“She sacrificed quite a bit,” she stated of her mother. “She was a single mother. She had me when she was 18,” Flom stated. “She got here right here to offer me a great schooling,” she added. “She was a really devoted mom.
“She was a pleasant girl. She was like many mothers – very loving, caring, devoted.”
