Nick Brooks, stoner son of accused serial-raping Oscar-winning composer Joe Brooks, has been indicted in the bathtub slaying of his swimsuit designer ex-girlfriend, Sylvie Cachay.
Brooks will remain held without bail pending his next court appearance, Jan. 4, by which date details of the indictment against him will be unsealed.
The possible charges against Brooks include murder by asphyxiation or strangling — consistent with evidence of bruises to Cachay’s neck and bleeding to her eyes.
Multiple sources have told the Post that investigators are treating the case as a murder — and one law enforcement source said prosecutors had intended, at least initially, to present murder charges to the grand jury.
For now, though, Brooks is being held only on attempted murder charges, reflecting an ongoing investigation into her precise cause of death.
Sources have told The Post there was some water in Cachay’s lungs, meaning drowning could have played some role.
But hotel witnesses have also told investigators that two hours before her body was found in an overflowing bathtub at the Soho Grand, Cachay was unable to walk across the lobby floor unassisted — a condition she blamed on prescription Xanex.
Toxicology results on what role the drugs may have played in contributing to her death will not be ready for another week or more. Prosecutors always have the option of reconvening a grand jury should toxicology results rule out an OD and point more firmly to murder.
For now, though, prosecutors aren’t even tipping the family members off to what is in the still-sealed indictment.
Cachay’s brothers, Patrick and David, fought back tears as they left court without details, and without even seeing Brooks. The 24-year-old is being held in a jail in Queens; court personnel attributed his absence to transportation delays.
“I’m just trying to relax,” said Patrick Orlando, 38, who was literally trembling as he left the courtroom. “This is really hard.”
“We know nothing — probably less than you do,” family attorney Susan Karten told reporters.
Similarly in the dark was defense lawyer Jeffrey Hoffman.
“We know nothing, zero, at this point,” Hoffman said.
Brooks, 24, is believed to be the last person to see Cachay alive. They checked into the Soho Grand hotel together last Thursday night, and security footage shows him leaving the hotel just five minutes after the first water complaint was lodged by hotel guests downstairs.
Hotel security — responding to the water complaints — entered Brooks’ and Cachay’s room to find her dead and partially unclothed in the room’s overflowing bathtub.
The tragic beauty had designed for Victoria’s Secret, Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs and Anne Cole, along with her own brand, Syla. She’d broken off the relationship the day before, according to reports.
“She was just such a great person. she touched so many people. .. we really lost one of the world’s shining stars, I believe, when my sister passed away,” said Patrick, his voice choked with emotion as he addressed reporters after the court proceeding.
“I just still can’t comprehend that she’s gone, I mean, she really was one of those poeplewho you just loved instantly,” said David, 29. “I’m still having trouble that she won’t be back.”
The brothers said they have not been dwelling on the how’s and why’s of their sister’s death, or directing angry thoughts at their sister’s accused killer. “I’ve been reflecting on all our times together,” instead, Patrick said, simply.
But the family lawyer let her anger show.
“Everyone that’s talked to us in the past few days has indicated that Nick Brooks was a pariah,” Karten told reporters. “That he was a preyer on women. This is going to come front and center in this case as to what happened.”
“For her life to end like this — the way it was, dumped in a bathtub — was just horrible. Horrible,” the lawyer said.