Ex-Boyfriend Nicholas Brooks Charged in Swimsuit Designer Sylvie Cachay's Death
NEW YORK (CBS/WCBS/AP) Nicholas Brooks, the boyfriend of Sylvie Cachay, the swimsuit designer who was found dead in an overflowing bathtub at a swanky New York hotel, has been indicted for second-degree murder, according to court records.
Brooks, 24, will be arraigned on the charge Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted, reports CBS station WCBS. A Manhattan grand jury handed down the indictment after the medical examiner's office ruled that Sylvie Cachay was strangled and drowned.
Cachay, 33, was found half-clothed, face-up in a tub at the Soho House hotel Dec. 9 after hotel workers noticed water leaking from the ceiling below her room The medical examiner's office claimed she had been held underwater and strangled, and ruled her death a homicide last week.
Brooks, who is the son of Oscar-winning composer Joseph Brooks, told police that the swimsuit designer was alive when he left her in their room at Soho House on Dec. 9 to go out to a bar. However, he was caught on surveillance video repeatedly entering and leaving the room, reports WCBS.
According to police, prescription drugs were found in Cachay's room, but Grace Burgess, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, would not say whether any drugs were found in the designer's system.
Cachay and Brooks had been dating for about six months, according to her mother, Sylvia Cachay of McLean, Virginia. But she said her daughter had told her weeks earlier that their relationship was over.
Cachay's family feels Brooks was outraged because she was leaving him.
Brooks' lawyer, Jeffrey Hoffman, has said his client is innocent.
"He's not doing well. He's in shock. Somebody who he cared a great deal for and had an intense relationship with is dead," Hoffman said.
In an unrelated case, Brooks' father is fighting charges that accuse him of molesting would-be actresses in his Manhattan apartment. He was the composer for the "You Light Up My Life" ballad, which scored an Oscar in 1978.
