Nicholas Brooks, her boyfriend of six months, was convicted of her second degree murder in July 2013 and sentenced to 25 years to life on September 23, 2013.

Cachay told the front desk clerk that her "stoner" boyfriend had accidentally set fire to their apartment after leaving lit candles behind the bed while high on drugs.

The police, examining her body, found wounds on her neck that were consistent with strangulation, hemorrhaging in her eyes, and a bite mark on her hand.

After both a tissue and toxicology test were performed,[17] the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide, saying that Cachay had been held underwater in the bathtub and strangled.

[20] During the trial, Cachay's friends testified that Brooks had been hiring prostitutes while dating her, sometimes using her credit card to do so; she became aware of this shortly before her death.

[21] Less than 24 hours before her murder, she had sent Brooks an email with the header "fuck you", confronting him about the suspicious activity on her credit card and threatening to report him to the police.

According to presiding Judge Bonnie Wittner, she could have sentenced Brooks to 15 years to life, but instead selected the higher punishment because the murder was a "singularly horrific and tragic event".

The court noted that both security camera footage and the presence of Brooks's DNA in the hotel bathroom placed him at the Soho House directly before the discovery of Cachay's body.