23 year old Kristina Caban from Manhattan has been sentenced to five years in prison for branding an ex-lover with a searing hot branding iron.
Caban, along with current boyfriend Robert Testagrossa and a third man, lured Caban’s ex-lover Samir Sara to a hotel room where they attacked him with a taser, threatened him with a handgun and forced him to the ground. Sara was punched in the face, and robbed of $10 and a cell phone.
Testagrossa, impersonating a police officer, ordered Sara to lie face down on the ground. Sara’s trousers were then pulled down and he was branded with a 10 centimetre letter “R” using a reshaped wire coat hanger that was heated in a flame.
The motive for the attack, which happened in October 2006, was revenge because Samir Sara had once had sex with Miss Caban back in 2004 and had not bothered to phone her afterwards.
Miss Caban, who is a talented photographer and college graduate, is said to come from a violent family background and has a history of physical violence and police arrests. In 2006, just prior to the attacks on Samir Sara, Miss Caban posted a threatening message on her Facebook account warning all those that cross her they will suffer for it.
“I’m tired of people who just want to stand in my way and push me down,” Caban wrote on her Facebook.com page. “To all the liars out there: you better step back ’cause I’m not going to back down anymore. I will hurt you.”
Robert Testagrossa was arrested by New York police when they traced a call made to him by Miss Caban whilst she was being held in custody.
During the attack on Samir Sara, one of the two men present claimed to be a Long Island police officer. When police traced the call Caban made to her boyfriend, they were suspicious that he lived in Long Island and found it was to much of a coincidence. He was picked up a few days later and charged with the same offence as Caban.
Both Testagrossa and Caban plead guilty to the charges in exchange for five year sentences. Testagrossa was sentenced back in February, but Caban was permitted to complete her college course and graduate before being sentenced yesterday at court.
The third suspect is believed to be Joel Leonhard, but he has never been traced.
Samir Sara is rumoured to have been accused of rape by Miss Caban, and the letter “R” branded on his backside was meant to have been spelling out the word “RAPIST” but the full branding wasn’t completed.
