By ANNA SPIVAK & DEANNA STEWART
A Latvian waitress testified on her own behalf in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, claiming that she never intended to hurt her boyfriend, only scare him, when she drove a knife into his chest and that she acted in self-defense.
Yekaterina Pusepa, 23, who has been in custody since May of 2012, has been accused of stabbing boyfriend, Alec Katsnelson after he allegedly cursed, beat and dragged her around his apartment at 33 Gold Street.
Arguments between the two had been escalating a few weeks prior, according to neighbors, one that left Pusepa blacked out at the foot of a flight of stairs that Katsnelson pushed her down.
Pusepa took out an order of protection against the 23-year-old former drug store manager-turned-drug-dealer but reconciled with him two weeks later.
The night of the stabbing, the pair had gone to a bar only to come home arguing. Pusepa said that after Katsnelson dragged her into the kitchen, repeatedly beating her and hitting her on the side of the head, she pulled out the knife.
“I picked up the knife to scare him,” she said. “I didn’t pick up the knife to hurt him.”
Medical examiner, Jennifer Hammers, earlier had told jurors that based on her observation of Katsnelson’s injuries, Pusepa was “standing with her hand above her head” and drove the knife downward, plunging into the area surrounding his heart and lungs.
Puspepa admitted that she “didn’t know how serious the injury was,” as Katsnelson pulled out the knife and began walking around the apartment, bleeding, and eventually stumbling down the stairs.
“I was calling 911,” said Pusepa. “And he just collapsed on the sidewalk.”
Katsnelson bears a scar in the middle of his chest as a reminder of the incident and was seen outside the courthouse where he testified against his ex-girlfriend.
Pusepa and her attorney Kevin O’Connell, maintain that the stabbing was in self-defense. She could face a maximum of 25 years if convicted. Her bail is set at $75,000.
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