A 95-year-old woman is accused of beating her roommate, a Holocaust survivor, to death at a Brooklyn, New York, nursing home this week.
Galina Smirnova, 95, was charged with second-degree murder and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon in the death of Nina Kravtsov, 89, according to the criminal complaint. She has pleaded not guilty.
The two were roommates at Seagate Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Coney Island.
On Sunday, nursing home personnel entered room 333 and observed Kravtsov “alive and asleep in her bed” and noted that “nothing in the room was in disarray,” according to the complaint.
An hour later, at 9:55 p.m., a witness entered the room and found Kravtsov “in her bed, non-responsive, covered in blood, and with gash marks about her face and head,” the complaint said.
The witness saw Smirnova in the bathroom washing her hands in the bathroom sink with her hospital gown bloody and blood on her legs, the document said.
A wheelchair in the room had both foot pedals removed, and one of them was found on the floor covered in blood, the complaint said.
Kravtsov had facial, head and skull fractures and was taken to a hospital. She was pronounced dead of blunt force trauma at 5:39 a.m. Monday.
Kravtsov was from a small town in Ukraine and survived Hitler’s invasion and the Holocaust.
“She ended up in a ghetto with a number of her other family members. She was designated for a concentration camp but ended up, by the grace of God, not ending up in the concentration camp,” said Randy Zelin, an attorney representing Kravtsov’s family.
She went on to work as a nurse and married at 18 and gave birth to a daughter, Lucy. At 19, she was widowed. Kravtsov raised Lucy as a single mother, and in 1979, they moved to the United States to pursue the American dream, settling in “Little Odessa” in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Zelin said.
Five years ago, she had a stroke and ended up at Seagate. At the advice of her doctor, she remained there to receive extra care.
“You have this woman who has survived the Holocaust and has beaten the odds. She is supposed to be cared for and protected and looked after … and instead she ends up with her head and face bashed into the point that she was unrecognizable,” Zelin said.
Zelin said he believed Smirnova, a dementia patient, had been in the facility for just 48 hours and was placed in the same room as Kravtsov because both spoke Russian.
Video at the facility showed no other people entered or exited room 333 from 8:55 p.m. to 9:55 p.m. except when medical personnel briefly entered and observed Smirnova, the complaint said.
Zelin said Kravtsov’s family got only an initial report from Seagate about the incident and have not received any apology or further information.
Seagate did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Smirnova was arrested Tuesday. She pleaded not guilty Wednesday at arraignment in Brooklyn criminal court. She was ordered to be held without bail.
She is due back in court Tuesday. A public defender listed for Smirnova did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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