A Bensonhurst woman is facing life in prison for allegedly murdering her father and seriously injuring her sister.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office announced charges against 22-year-old Nikki Secondino, who investigators accuse of killing her sleeping father with a hammer and a knife, before seriously wounding a sibling who came to his aid on Dec. 29.
Prosecutors slapped Secondino with charges of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
“This defendant is charged with brutally killing her own father and then stabbing her younger sister, allegedly following an argument over a laptop,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “My office will vigorously prosecute this horrific case and seek justice for the victims.”
According to the District Attorney’s office, Secondino allegedly attacked her 61-year-old father, Carlo Secondino, as he slept on their couch at about 5:20 a.m., and dealt several blows with a hammer, before stabbing him with a kitchen knife.
Paramedics pronounced the father dead on the scene.
After her bloody rampage, investigators say that the defendant’s 19-year-old sister tried to intervene after hearing a disturbance in the living room — but the knife-wielding suspect allegedly cut her multiple times in the face, body and hands.
Prosecutors say that Nikki Secondino told responding officers that someone had broken into her home, killed her father and sister, and sexually assaulted her.
Family members, however, quickly questioned that version of events, and told NYPD officers that those claims were simply a false narrative concocted by the suspect to avoid blame.
The DA’s office said it has evidence of a history of domestic violence reports between the father and daughter, with Gonzalez’s office also claiming that the elder Secondino had expressed fear of his daughter in the past.
In an arraignment today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Warin, Nikki Secondino was ordered to be held in custody without bail. She will return to court on April 5.
If convicted, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of between 50 years to life in prison.
