Thought I was Salma Hayek: College student who stabbed date in Las Vegas hotel as revenge for US drone strike on Iran

In another bizarre twist to the tale of the college student who stabbed her date as a revenge for a US drone strike, now claims that she thought she was Salma Hayek from From Dawn Till Dusk. For those who haven't followed this case, in March 2023, Nika Nikoubin, 23 was charged with stabbling a blind during sex. She later claimed her acttions were driven by a desire for revenge, for a US drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

The incident occured in Las Vegas. Nikoubin, now claims that she believed she was channelling Salma Hayek’s character in From Dusk Till Dawn. Also, when she was being interrogated, she thought she was in a Homeland episode. The New York Post reports that Nika suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. She told the Post: “I was in a very manic state of mind.I essentially looked in the mirror and I thought, ‘This actress is hot,’ thinking I’m Salma Hayek from the ‘Dusk Till Dawn’ movie, and I was hallucinating there was a snake around my shoulders.”

Nikoubin, had met her date on a dating app called Plenty of Fish and the pair had decided to engage in coitus at the Sunset Station Hotel and Casino on March 5, 2022. During sex, Nikoubin blindfolded her date and stabbed him in the neck with a pink kitchen knife.

The victim shoved her off when he felt a sharp pain after which Nikoubin fled the room. She later added: “I was so far gone that even when I had handcuffs around me, I was still thinking I was a character. I thought I was going to have a custody scene … like a scene shot in jail. When I was being interviewed I thought I was a TV character. I thought I was Carrie [played by Claire Danes] from ‘Homeland’ and I was imagining a camera behind me recording all these scenes.”

During interrogation, Nikoubin, who came to the US at the age of 12, said her actions were driven by “spite and revenge”. She later told The Post, that those weren’t her political views, and no one in her family had those views.

She also said she was off her meds and only realised she’d stabbed her date six weeks later afterwards, she was in jail. Her lawyer had blamed the stabbing on a psychotic episode, and Nikoubin also said she had been raped as a 18-year-old which had led to the deterioration of her mental health.

She added: “I was three weeks into taking my medication when I moved to Las Vegas and just walking down The Strip, I threw away all my medication. I was hallucinating. I had so many delusions. I was on alcohol. I wasn’t doing what my parents taught me to do. Couple all that together, I had a manic episode. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. These all prior to my arrest.”

Nikoubin was charged on two counts of false imprisonment with use of a deadly weapon and was put on probation and house arrest. Her mental health struggles were cited as the reason she had avoided prison.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.