Upper East Side 'Demon Baby' Psychic Pleads Guilty in Elaborate Con

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A fortune teller who conned a woman out of more than $62,000 to lift an evil presence has fessed up. Victoria Nicholes, 39, pleaded guilty Monday to one charge of third-degree grand larceny, according to court records.

Nicholes — who went by the alias "Psychic Lisa" — will avoid a jail sentence as part of the plea agreement, the New York Post reported. Instead, she will be forced to pay her victim, a 35-year-old woman, restitution of $63,335 according to the report.

In accordance with the plea deal, Nicholes will serve a three-year conditional discharge, court records show. This means that if she violates certain conditions of her plea deal she can be brought back to court and re-sentenced.

Nicholes met her victim when the woman came into her fortune telling business in 2013, according to the complaint. Nicholes operated her fortune telling business at 880 Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side.

It was during that routine $10 fortune reading that Nicholes scared the woman into believing she was cursed by a demon, said Bob Nygaard a private investigator hired by the victim.

"[Nicholes] claimed that it was an evil spirit or demon that came from when her mother had a miscarriage," Nygaard told Patch. "That baby that she miscarried, that was the evil spirit or demon."

The victim was experiencing trouble with her marriage at the time she visited Nicholes, which allowed the so-called psychic to exploit her fears, Nygaard told Patch.

"The psychic conned her into believing that unless this evil spirit or demon was removed, her husband would leave her for a younger woman and that she would grow old all alone and never have another successful relationship," Nygaard said.

The victim gave Nicholes $33,000 in cash and a Rolex watch costing more than $30,000, to perform a ritual to remove the evil spirit. Nicholes also convinced the victim to buy a $2,400 tuxedo to restore her marriage. Eventually Nicholes realized she was just being strung along and contacted Nygaard to investigate.

During his investigation, Nygaard sent two undercover operatives to Nicholes' business and recorded her accepting money for fortune telling, a crime in New York State. Yes, fortune telling is illegal, though you may not be able to tell when you pass three places advertising it walking down a New York City street.

"On the Upper East Side you see these fortune telling parlors and you see them every couple of blocks," Nygaard said. "A lot of people look at these shops as just a mom and pop shop, but the average shop we estimate brings in over $350,000 a year and a lot of times these places are part of criminal enterprises."

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