Nicholas Brooks being walked into Manhattan Criminal Court earlier this year on May 6. This Monday, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in the murder of his girlfriend at Soho House almost three years ago.
Soho House to big house
The man convicted of murdering his girlfriend in a Meatpacking District members-only hotel in 2010 has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced on Sept. 23.
Nicholas Brooks, 27, was found guilty of second-degree murder by a state supreme court jury on July 11.
Shortly after midnight on Dec. 9, 2010, Brooks and his 33-year-old girlfriend, Sylvie Cachay, who was well known as a fashionable swimsuit designer, checked into a room at Soho House, on Ninth Ave. near W. 13th St., according to court documents. Sometime between 12:30 a.m. and 2:15 a.m., Brooks strangled Cachay and forcibly drowned her in the hotel room’s bathtub, the D.A. Said.
“In 2010 — the year Nicholas Brooks murdered Ms. Cachay — nearly 1,100 women were killed nationwide by a husband or boyfriend,” said Vance. “Society tends to associate violent crime with tragedies that happen to strangers on the street. But, too often, domestic violence victims become homicide victims in their own homes. We have come a long way in our recognition and understanding of domestic violence, but there is much more we have to do to better protect individuals like Ms. Cachay.”
‘Candy man’ gets canned
This drunk dad allegedly left his three small children alone during rush hour at one of the city’s busiest intersections, and told them not to leave the street until they finished selling his candy.
A police officer said he spotted the kids — ages 8, 10 and 11 — walking through heavy traffic at the corner of W. 14th St. and Sixth Ave around 6 p.m. on Sept. 18, and he approached them after they were nearly hit by passing cars. The children reportedly told the officer that their father — who was nowhere to be found — had told them to stand around the intersection and sell small packets of fruit snacks for $2 each, and then to meet him inside the nearby 14th St. PATH station when they were finished.
The officer stayed with the kids to keep them out of the street, and he said that 15 minutes later the father, Marcus Wright, 29, showed up at the street corner. Wright was visibly drunk, according to the cop, and was still holding an open bottle of vodka when he approached his children.
Wright was arrested at the scene and charged with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
Rear window
Police arrested Rolando Colon, 43, early on Sept. 19 after he allegedly broke into a car parked in the West Village during an attempted theft.
Officers on patrol said they spotted Colon around 4:45 a.m., as he smashed the rear driver’s-side window of a 2008 Saab parked on Bank St., between W. Fourth St. and Waverly Place.
Then, Colon reportedly dove in through the window to try and remove property from inside the car before fleeing the scene, but the cops acted quickly and apprehended him before he could complete the job. The officers said they also found a “metal tool” in Colon’s pants pocket that he probably used to break the car’s window.
Colon was charged with criminal mischief, attempted larceny, auto stripping and possession of burglar’s tools.
Employees Only glass clash
Police arrested Moses Laboy, 39, on Sept. 19, a day after he allegedly attacked a former co-worker during an argument at a West Village bar.
The victim, 24, told police he was in the middle of talking to a woman inside Employees Only, at 510 Hudson St., around 4 a.m. on Sept. 18, when Moses Laboy, 39, interrupted and started talking trash in his face. The man said he recognized Laboy because he used to work with him, but he was caught off guard when Laboy reportedly began pushing and punching him.
The man threw a punch back at Laboy, allegedly in self-defense, but Laboy then reportedly picked up a glass and threw it at the other man’s face, the glass shattering on impact and leaving him with several cuts.
Witnesses said Laboy then ran out of the bar, jumped into a cab and got away before anyone could stop him. But bar employees handed over security video footage that showed him starting the fight. In addition to the victim’s statements, police were able to link the video image to Laboy because there was also a warrant out for his arrest, stemming from a 2010 charge of after-hours trespassing in a city park.
Police were able to track down and arrest Laboy the next day, charging him with assault and criminal possession of a weapon for the Sept. 18 incident.
Bear hugged and mugged
The New York Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying and locating a suspect wanted in connection with a robbery of a senior in the Village.
On Mon., Sept. 16 at about 5:15 a.m. in the vicinity of Washington Place and Sixth Ave., the suspect approached an 85-year-old male victim from behind, placed him in a bear hug and forcibly removed his property. No injuries were reported.
The suspect is described as a male wearing a black-and-white checkered, flannel, hooded sweatshirt, black jeans and a baseball cap.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the N.Y.P.D.’s Crime Stoppers Hot Line at 800-577-TIPS. The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers Web site at www.nypdcrimestoppers.com or texting their tips to 274637(CRIMES).
No fare, but firearm
On Sept. 18 at around 3:30 p.m., Police Officers Michael Miceli and Lorenzo Colangelo, assigned to the Transit Bureau’s Manhattan Impact Unit, were on patrol at the W. 14th St. A / C / E subway station. They observed a male, 24, in the mezzanine area of the station soliciting subway customers for a swipe of their MetroCard to enter the subway system.
As the man entered through the turnstiles he was arrested by the officers and found to be in possession of a loaded .38-caliber Smith and Wesson revolver in his waistband, according to police. During the course of the investigation, marijuana and four credit cards, which did not belong to him, were discovered in his pocket. An investigation revealed that the credit cards were stolen during a gunpoint robbery that occurred on Sept. 13 at 12:40 a.m. in front of 339 W. 19th St.
Matthew Carlton, 24, of the Bronx, was charged with first-degree robbery, criminal possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of marijuana.
— Sam Spokony and Lincoln Anderson
