A LIGHT PADDLING
Slap on the wrist for killer kayak fiancée
Angelika Graswald, whose fiancé, Vincent Viafore, drowned in the Hudson after she pulled the plug from his kayak, was given a sweetheart deal yesterday to serve only a few years in jail.
A woman who admitted she pulled the plug from her fiancé’s kayak and said she was “euphoric” as she watched him drown in the frigid Hudson River dodged murder and manslaughter raps Monday, taking a plea deal for a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Angelika Graswald, 37, would have faced 25 years to life in prison if convicted at trial for Vincent Viafore’s 2015 death but now could get just 16 months to four years behind bars.
And with time served, the sentence could see her released on parole as soon as December, her lawyer said.
The deal comes despite Graswald’s stunning admissions to state police, which a judge had allowed into evidence.
“I wanted him dead, and now he’s gone,” she said during an 11-hour interrogation in 2015. “And I’m OK with it.” Orange County prosecutors had charged her with second-degree murder and manslaughter, claiming she wanted to cash in on Viafore’s $250,000 life-insurance policy. Viafore, 46, would have been her third husband.
The DA’s office has said Graswald refused to help him when his kayak capsized on their April 19, 2015, outing to Pollepel Island, 50 miles north of New York City.
She “moved the paddle away from him as he was struggling to stay afloat with water tem- peratures in the 40-degree range, and failed to render him assistance, including timely calls for help,” the office said.
Asked in the interrogation why she wanted Viafore dead, the Latvian immigrant performed yoga poses and said, “I wanted to be free.”
She said their relationship became strained when he pressed her for “sexual stuff.”
“He wanted threesomes, porn, everything,” she said.
The missing kayak plug was recovered from the center console of the car Graswald was driving, prosecutors said.
But she had maintained that Viafore drowned because he was drunk — not because of the missing plug — and claimed she was just telling the cops what they wanted to hear to get out of the interrogation.
“I was at my breaking point. I just, I had it. So I just gave ’ em what they wanted,” she told ABC’s “20/20” in 2015.
But on Monday, Graswald tear- fully admitted removing the plug and watching Viafore drown.
She said that she knew a ring was missing from his paddle, and that he was not wearing a life vest or a wet suit, according to prosecutors.
Both the prosecution and defense claimed victory in Monday’s plea deal.
“While no outcome can compensate for the loss [to Viafore’s family], this disposition will hopefully bring a measure of closure,” District Attorney David Hoovler said. “This plea ensures that the defendant will be held criminally liable for her actions.”
Defense lawyer Richard Portale said, “We have maintained from the beginning this was not an intentional killing.”
Graswald, whose US resident status expires next year, faces deportation back to Latvia, prosecutors said.
Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 1.