NEW YORK – Federal prosecutors alleged a third murder plot yesterday in connection with the killing of a Florida millionaire in a suburban New York hotel.
“We have learned of efforts to kill another witness,” assistant United States Attorney Elliott Jacobson said during the arraignment of the victim’s widow, Narcy Novack, 53, of Fort Lauderdale. Jacobson did not identify the witness or say who was behind the alleged plot.
Novack, her brother and three other men were charged last month in the death of her husband, Ben Novack jnr, who was found beaten to death at the Hilton in Rye Brook in July 2009. Prosecutors say Novack let two killers into the hotel room, watched as they beat her husband with dumbbells and ordered them to cut his eyes out.
Novack pleaded not guilty yesterday in her first court appearance since being brought to New York for trial. She was accused in a second killing when she appeared in court in Florida after her arrest. Jacobson alleged then that she plotted the beating death of her 86-year-old mother-in-law three months before her husband’s killing.
Jacobson said Narcy Novack wanted to inherit millions of dollars from the estate of her late father-in-law, Ben Novack snr, who built the famed Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. She has not been charged in the mother-in-law case.
The third plot came to light on Monday after Novack’s attorney, Howard Tanner, asked, unsuccessfully, Magistrate Judge Paul Davison to allow Novack free on bail, saying she would agree to any conditions, including electronic monitoring. Jacobson said that Novack had been implicated in the killing of the mother-in-law. He also suggested that the “Veliz family” – Veliz is Novack’s maiden name – had plotted to frame and assault Novack’s daughter, May Abad, who stands to inherit the estate if Novack is convicted in the killing.
Then Jacobson disclosed the alleged plot against the unidentified witness. Novack’s lawyer, Howard Tanner, said he had no information on the alleged plot.
Be the first to comment