A 95-year-old woman was charged with beating her 89-year-old roommate to death in a Coney Island nursing home after witnesses saw her washing her hands in their blood-spattered room, the authorities said on Wednesday.
Police officers answered a 911 call from the home, Seagate Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, at around 10:30 p.m. Sunday. They found Nina Kravtsov lying on her bed, unresponsive and covered in blood, according to a criminal complaint. She had gash marks on her face and head, the complaint said.
Emergency medical responders took Ms. Kravtsov to NYU Langone Hospital in Brooklyn, where she died early Monday morning from blunt force trauma, according to the police and the complaint.
Ms. Kravtsov’s roommate, Galina Smirnova, was arrested about 3 p.m. Tuesday and was charged with Ms. Kravtsov’s murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
A wheelchair inside the room, according to the criminal complaint, had been partially disassembled, and one of its foot rests was on the floor, covered in blood. The other foot rest, the complaint said, was outside the room, on the ground below their window.
A witness reported seeing Ms. Smirnova washing her hands in the bathroom sink she shared with Ms. Kravtsov. Her hospital gown and both her legs had blood on them, according to the criminal complaint.
Ms. Smirnova was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Wednesday and pleaded not guilty. The Brooklyn district attorney’s office, which is prosecuting the case, said the office had asked that Ms. Smirnova receive a mental health examination. A spokesman for the office declined further comment.
Efforts to reach Ms. Smirnova’s lawyer, Erin Darcy, were not immediately successful.
Relatives of Ms. Kravtsov did not immediately respond to messages.
Seagate, which has about 360 residents, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how a deadly assault on a resident might have occurred. Miriam Farkas, director of clinical services for Excelsior Care Group, a health care management firm that owns the facility, declined to comment.
State Department of Health records show that Seagate was cited for staffing deficits in October 2024. A report found that “the facility did not ensure that there was sufficient nursing staff to attain or maintain the highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being of each resident.” The Department of Health recorded the problem as “corrected” in December 2024.
Medicare.gov gave Seagate’s staffing situation a one-star rating, out of five. Medicare found that licensed nursing staff at the rehabilitation center spend less time per resident than is average, both in New York State and nationally. Registered nurses spent an average of 18 minutes per Seagate patient per day, Medicare found; the New York State and the national averages are more than double that.
Seagate has been the subject of several lawsuits in recent years. The complaints accused the nursing center and its administration of wrongful death, negligence and statutory violations that caused them to suffer avoidable injuries and exposed them to infection, such as Covid-19.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Taylor Robinson is a Times reporter covering the New York City metro area.
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