Designer Murder Suspect Fears Religious Violence in Jail After Watching ‘Oz’
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Sounds like Nick Brooks has been watching too much TV. While police grilled him about the murder of his swimsuit-designer girlfriend, Sylvie Cachay, found strangled in a bathtub at the Meatpacking District’s tony, members-only Soho House, the 24-year-old blabbered that “I watch the show ‘Oz.’ I’ve seen what happens in jail,” according to the NY Daily News. “I’m Jewish and I’m worried about getting beat up by white supremacists.” In the HBO prison drama Oz, the white supremacist gang – based on the real-life Aryan Brotherhood – is led by inmate Vernon Schillinger, played by J.K. Simmons, according to Ask.com.
“Brooks’ panicky statements were released after he pleaded not guilty in a clear voice to second-degree murder, a charge that could mean 25 years to life in a real prison if he is convicted,” the News reports. “How long can I get for something like this,” Brooks also asked detectives after his arrest, according to newly-released police statements cited by the New York Post. “Will I get bail? I have money in a trust fund, but I have to get the money in person,” he announced. “Should I pay someone for protection while I’m in?” the paranoid-sounding Brooks asked detectives during the drive to Central Booking, according to the police statements quoted in the Post.
Brooks, 24, has insisted that Cachay was alive and sleeping when he left her room at the swanky hotel on Dec. 9 to party with a friend, according to AMNewYork. Hotel workers later found Cachay dead in an overflowing bathtub. Defense attorney Jeffrey Hoffman did not ask for bail and Brooks is due back in court Feb. 8.
Brooks is the son of Joseph Brooks, Oscar-winning composer of the ’70s dirge ballad “You Light Up My Life” and “an accused violent felon like his son,” according to the Post. “The elder Brooks is charged with luring 13 young women to his Upper East Side apartment under the pretense of giving them movie roles – only to pounce on them in attacks ranging from rape to forcible touching.”
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