Slay suspect Narcy Novack seeks public defender
Jonathan Bandler
September 2, 2010
LoHud.com
http://m.lohud.com/detail.jsp?key=392688&rc=lu&full=1
Narcy Novack, the Florida woman accused of plotting her husband’s slaying at a Rye Brook hotel to get at his millions, claims she no longer can afford to pay for her legal defense and will ask a judge for a court-appointed lawyer.
The widow’s intention was revealed in a letter this week from her lawyer, Howard Tanner, to U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas.
Novack and three co-defendants in the slaying of Ben Novack Jr. were arrested in July and are due back in federal court in White Plains on Sept. 10. Karas ordered Tanner to be there to help Novack complete a financial affidavit, after which the judge will determine whether she qualifies for free counsel.
Tanner began representing Narcy Novack within days of the killing last summer. Before it was publicly known that Ben Novack’s will left his $5 million-plus estate to his wife, Tanner proclaimed that she had nothing to gain from her husband’s death.
Tanner would not comment on the case or Novack’s finances Wednesday. He did reiterate that Novack did not stand to gain financially from her husband’s death, but would not elaborate.
He was also by her side in Florida as she sought to gain control of her husband’s estate. Novack was challenged by her daughter, May Abad, who accused her of having a role in the killing.
A judge in February initially ruled in Novack’s favor when Abad could offer no proof – but backtracked within days when he learned of a federal probe in the case, ordering her to post a $5 million bond to gain access to the estate.
Novack never posted the bond, and federal authorities soon began freezing her assets and seizing a sizable portion of the estate to keep her from benefiting from it.
During the probate proceeding, the judge questioned submissions by Tanner and other lawyers for $1.6 million in legal fees. That issue remains unresolved.
Melanie Klein, Narcy Novack’s sister-in-law, said Tanner has already been paid a considerable amount and is requesting several hundred thousand dollars more.
“We just feel they want money, money, money, and they’re not really doing anything,” Klein said. “Of course she’s just going to try for a court-appointed lawyer. What choice does she have?”
Authorities have suggested that Novack learned her husband was having an affair and that she feared he would leave her with virtually nothing. The couple’s 1981 prenuptial agreement limited her to $65,000 if the marriage ended. In addition to several properties, boats and vintage cars, Ben Novack had one of the world’s largest collections of Batman memorabilia.
He was the son of the founder of Miami Beach’s famed Fontainebleau Hotel. On July 12, 2009, Novack was bound and gagged and bludgeoned to death in the couple’s room at the Hilton Rye Town during an Amway convention their company was organizing.
Authorities contend that Narcy Novack let the two killers into the room and watched as they beat her husband to death with dumbbells. She is alleged to have handed them a pillow to muffle his screams and exhorted them in Spanish to “finish him” by cutting out his eyes.
Federal authorities also have accused Novack of plotting the death of her mother-in-law in April 2009 and suggested that she and other relatives had sought to harm or kill Abad and another unidentified witness in the case.
Bernice Novack died three months before her son under suspicious circumstances at her Fort Lauderdale home. Despite a significant head injury and extensive blood spatter, authorities initially ruled the death an accident as a result of a series of falls. But the case was ruled a homicide following the indictment in the Westchester killing.
No charges have been filed in Bernice Novack’s death. The four defendants in the Rye Brook killing – Narcy Novack, her brother Cristobal Veliz, Joel Gonzalez and Denis Ramirez – are charged with interstate domestic violence and stalking and are being held without bail at Westchester County jail.
A co-conspirator in the case who has told authorities he helped kill both Novacks has pleaded guilty. His case has been sealed, and authorities have not publicly identified him.
Estate of Denial® provides news, analysis and commentary on abusive practices occurring in probate courts and via probate instruments (wills, trusts, guardianships, powers of attorney). We provide original perspective to educate the public regarding this growing threat to both individual freedoms and property rights.
