Soho House Murder Conviction Upheld By State Court

MEATPACKING DISTRICT, NY — New York's highest court upheld the murder conviction of a man who killed his girlfriend in 2010, when he strangled her inside one of Manhattan's most exclusive hotels.

The New York State Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld Nicholas Brooks' second degree murder conviction, writing that there was "overwhelming evidence" against him. The New York Post was first to report on the court's decision.

Brooks strangled and then drowned his girlfriend Sylvie Cachay, a swimsuit designer, in 2010 when the two were spending the night at the high-end Soho House hotel in the Meatpacking District. Employees at the hotel, 29-35 Ninth Ave., discovered Cachay's body early on the morning of Dec. 9, 2010, when they entered her hotel room because of water leak and found her fully submerged in an overflowing bathtub. She was 33 years old.

An autopsy said that Cachay's neck showed signs of strangulation and found fluid in her lungs, which indicated "that she had been trying to breathe while under water," according to court documents.

Brooks, 31, appealed his second-degree murder conviction from 2013. The New York State Court of Appeals dismissed his complaints and upheld his conviction. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in 2013, the maximum sentence.

The court's decision will likely allow Cachay's family to collect a $12.5 million wrongful death settlement from Brooks. A judge ordered Brooks, the son of a successful songwriter, to pay the Cachay family $12.5 million in 2014, which wasn't distributed while the criminal case was appealed.

Brooks was the son of Joseph Brooks, who penned the popular 1970s song "You Light Up My Life." Brooks' father killed himself in 2011 while awaiting trial on sexual assault charges.

Image credit: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images. Image caption: Exterior views of the Soho House on December 13, 2010 in New York City. Swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay was found dead in her room on December 9, 2010 at the Soho House.