TROUBLED: Yekaterina Pusepa yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, where she turned down a plea bargain in the 2012 stabbing of her beau. (Steven Hirsch)
TROUBLED: Yekaterina Pusepa appears yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, where she turned down a plea bargain in the 2012 stabbing of her beau. (Steven Hirsch)
One thrust of the knife, one decade in prison.
Prosecutors are playing hardball with the Latvian lovely charged with plunging a kitchen knife into the chest of her cheating boyfriend, narrowly missing his heart — demanding that she serve 10 years behind bars.
Under a new deal discussed — but not taken — yesterday, Yekaterina Pusepa would admit she intentionally tried to murder boyfriend Alec Katsnelson.
The two had sparred almost fatally last May, Pusepa’s knife allegedly piercing Katsnelson’s lung.
Afterward, she was famously photographed standing handcuffed and hysterical outside their Gold Street apartment, her midriff-baring white T-shirt smeared with blood.
In return for a guilty plea, prosecutors would recommend the flat 10-year prison term, which is still far less than the potential maximum of 25 years behind bars.
But it would also be considerably more than the minimum sentence allowed by law, under which she’d be locked up for anywhere from three to six years, depending on the good or bad graces of a parole board.
Pusepa looked haggard in a cheerful, argyle-print sweater yesterday as she stood at the defense table and the potential plea offer was discussed by both sides before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel.
She’s holding out for a better offer, at least for now, said her lawyer, Kevin O’Connell.
“It was discussed; it is still on the table,” the lawyer said of the 10-year deal. “It hasn’t been accepted or rejected.”
And no matter how long her potential prison stay, Pusepa would still almost certainly be deported back to her native Latvia as soon as she is released, O’Connell said.
Given those dire prospects — along with police and witness accounts of previous violent fights between the fractious lovers — a self-defense trial is still a very strong possibility.
Self defense is “still certainly part of the defense,” O’Connell said.
“It was a tumultuous relationship,” he added.
Any trial would be months away.
In court yesterday, prosecutors said they were still awaiting the completion of DNA test results on the voluminous evidence in the case. Pusepa remains held in lieu of $75,000 bail, and is scheduled to return to court on May 23 for another update on evidence tests and plea negotiations.
“I don’t know,” Pusepa had whispered last week to a Post reporter in an exclusive jailhouse interview, when asked if she still loved Katsnelson, who would almost certainly be called to testify against her at any trial.
“He’s a child,” she said, still blaming him for the argument that landed her in jail.
“He has no remorse,” she complained. “He supposedly had all these injuries and he’s running around in the streets, smoking … going to clubs. We’re both in this because of what he did.”
Neighbors have told The Post that the couple fought loudly and constantly. Still, Pusepa didn’t help herself by allegedly initially lying to cops — inventing a phantom stabber who, she reportedly said, “barged into the apartment.”
“He just barged in!” she allegedly told cops as she stood, blood-splattered, on Gold Street. “He came from outside into the apartment and did this.”
She then reportedly added, “I’m not saying anything else without a lawyer.”
Her eventual “confession” wasn’t much better.
“I grabbed a butter knife and told him not to touch me, and I told him to get away from me,” she allegedly claimed. “Then he grabbed my hand with the knife in it and stabbed himself in the chest and fell to the floor.”
“It all happened so fast,” she allegedly added.