A 37-year-old woman in Florida will spend several decades behind bars for killing her 79-year-old roommate, beating and stabbing him to death in the home they shared, then dousing herself in Diet Mountain Dew in an attempt to thwart police from collecting DNA evidence while being interviewed by police. Volusia County Circuit Court Judge Leah R. Case on Thursday ordered Nichole Maks to serve a sentence of 35 years in a state correctional facility for the 2023 slaying of Michael Cerasoli, court documents reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Maks was arrested in July 2023 and charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count of tampering with evidence, and one count of resisting arrest with violence for killing Cerasoli. On Thursday she pleaded no contest to the lesser crime of second-degree murder, as well as one count each resisting with violence, arson of a dwelling, and tampering with physical evidence.
The sentencing hearing …