The Prince of Paradise (44 page)

F
IFTY-
O
NE

“A SICK, VICIOUS CYCLE”

On July 16, 2011,
The Miami Herald
carried a recap of the case, headlined “The Novack Murders: A Tale of Greed, Sex, Betrayal and Shocking Brutality.”
In the story, reporter Julie Brown interviewed defense attorney Howard Tanner, who insisted that Narcy Novack was totally innocent and that prosecutors had no evidence against her.

“The puzzling thing,” said Tanner, “is that prosecutors are making deals with people who are admittedly involved in the murder of Ben Novack, and they are going after Narcy, who had nothing to do with the murder … They are making deals with a variety of devils.”

Two weeks later, at a status hearing, Prosecutor Elliott Jacobson told Judge Kenneth Karas that the government would not be seeking the death penalty, but would be asking for a mandatory life sentence instead.
Narcy Novack had no visible reaction to the news.

Jacobson said that he was still pressing ahead with a new superseding indictment, including murder in aid of racketeering, which would be ready in a couple of weeks.

“Naturally my client is frustrated by the whole process,” Tanner told the judge, who replied that he “appreciated” that.

The judge officially appointed defense attorney Larry Sheehan to represent Cristobal Veliz.

Toward the end of the morning’s hearing, Jacobson complained to the judge about defense attorney Tanner’s recent interview with
The Miami Herald
, taking exception to his saying that prosecutors were making a deal with “a variety of devils.”

Judge Karas issued a gag order on attorneys giving any further interviews to the press, saying he was concerned that it might prejudice the jury pool for the upcoming trial.

*   *   *

On Tuesday, September 20, the long-awaited second superseding indictments were filed against Narcy Novack and her brother Cristobal.
The six new felony counts included one of murder in aid of racketeering, alleging that the two were part of an interstate plot to enrich themselves.
It carried a mandatory life sentence without parole if they were found guilty.

Two weeks later, Judge Kenneth Karas set an April 16, 2012, date for the murder trial to begin.
After Narcy was formally arraigned on the new charges, pleading not guilty, Howard Tanner announced he was considering asking the court for separate trials, as there was a “good basis” to do so.

At the hearing, Veliz’s arraignment was postponed after he told the judge he had not yet discussed his plea with his new lawyer, Larry Sheehan.
Then, against Sheehan’s advice, Veliz held up a copy of the letter he had written to Judge Karas and waved it around.

“They did this, not me,” he declared angrily.
“I’m not guilty.”

Two weeks later, Veliz was arraigned on the new charges; he pleaded not guilty to all of them.
He also asked Judge Karas for permission to leave Westchester County Jail for a few hours so he could marry his fiancée, Laura Law (already described as his wife in his letters), at a nearby town hall.

“You want to marry Laura Law?”
the judge asked.

“Yes, please,” Veliz replied.
“Please give me the opportunity.”

Judge Karas said he would check with federal marshals, and told the defendant to “hang in there.”

*   *   *

On November 15, Ben Novack Jr.’s collection of Batman comics and other collectibles was auctioned off in Beverly Hills, California.
In a three-day auction, his rare comic book collection fetched a total of $268,000, including a record $101,575 for a restored 1939
Detective Comics
No.
27, which marked the very first appearance of Batman.

*   *   *

In mid-February 2012, Maxine Fiel hired top genealogist Harvey E.
Morse to investigate the Novack family tree and prevent her nephew’s fortune from going to May Abad and her two sons.
Fiel’s attorney, Mark Hanson, then petitioned Broward County Probate Court, asking it to decide exactly who the rightful heirs to Ben Novack Jr.’s millions were.
He said the Novack family’s purpose was to “cut off [Narcy’s] bloodline,” so neither she nor any of her descendants could profit.

“The law as a matter of public policy,” attorney Hanson said, “does not want the murderess to benefit in any way under the will.”

Hanson, who is based in Daytona, Florida, already claimed to have located three of Ben Novack Jr.’s cousins, who could lay claim to his now estimated $10 million estate.

Fiel said the last person Bernice would have wanted to inherit her money and valuable jewels was her daughter-in-law.
“Not one of my children or I have ever discussed the money,” she said.
“I want justice.
I want that woman [Narcy] put away forever and never [to] see the light of day.”

Asked by a local Miami TV station for her comment, May Abad lashed out at her stepfather’s family.
“They have no dignity whatsoever,” she said.
“All they’re after is the money.
Where have they been all these years?”

*   *   *

On Friday, February 28, at a pretrial hearing, it was revealed that Narcy Novack had been receiving regular visits at the Westchester County Jail from criminal attorney Gary Greenwald, whom she had put on a retainer.
Her longtime attorney Howard Tanner had found out only a day earlier, after Greenwald asked Judge Karas to allow Narcy to use her assets to pay his, Greenwald’s, fees.

Tanner was also unaware that two months earlier Narcy had transferred the ownership of a 1995 Mercedes to Greenwald, who had registered it in the name of a consulting firm he ran.
In January Narcy had also transferred $18,797.05 from an insurance policy to the lawyer.

The portly attorney, based in Chester, New York, arrived in court with a female assistant carrying a bag of jewelry valued at $200,000, which Greenwald claimed belonged to Narcy Novack.

In August 2010, Narcy had signed an affidavit claiming to be penniless.
Since then, Tanner had been representing her at a fraction of his normal fee as a public defender.

“I’ve received a letter giving some indication that Mr.
Greenwald now represents Miss Novack,” Judge Karas said.
“With the trial date fast approaching, I find it perplexing.”

Then Greenwald asked the judge for a special hearing to determine if Narcy Novack could use assets currently tied up in Florida probate court to pay his fees.
He explained how the $200,000 worth of jewelry he had brought to court had recently come to light through a family member.

“The taxpayers have been paying for Miss Novack,” Karas told Greenwald angrily, “and the taxpayers should be reimbursed for Mr.
Tanner’s hard work.
You have a retainer.
Now all of a sudden there’s jewelry to pay for it.”

Then Tanner told the judge that his client wanted to address the court, although he’d warned her not to.

“I’m going to echo that advice,” said the judge.
“What Mr.
Greenwald has said in this court could hurt your cause in ways you don’t even think.”

Ignoring him, Narcy got to her feet and declared, “I’m tired of this.
I’m fighting corruption.
I’ve been framed.”

“We’re not here to try your case,” the judge told her.

“Please let me use my wedding band to defend myself,” she said.
“Because the Florida court has used my assets to pay my accuser’s lawyers’ bills.
I can’t use my own [money.]”

“You told me in a sworn statement that you had nothing to pay an attorney,” Karas told her sternly.
“Now you’re telling me you want to use [jewelry].

“After I find out later that I have this,” she snapped.
“Please let me use my assets, so I can use Mr.
Greenwald to defend myself.
I need more than what I have.”

“I can answer that in one word,” the judge told her sternly.
“No.”

Judge Karas then denied Greenwald’s request for a hearing, saying Narcy Novack already had a court-appointed attorney.
“She just wants to have her proverbial cake and eat it,” said the judge.
“She has no right to multiple counsel.
I will leave it to the government as to what it wants to do with the jewels.
The application is denied.”

Judge Karas then called a short recess, leaving Narcy and her brother Cristobal alone in the courtroom except for two marshals and a couple of reporters.

“Bastards!”
Narcy hissed at her brother, sitting behind her.
Then she turned around to the press bench, grinned, and said, “Happy Halloween.”

When the court reconvened, Judge Karas told Veliz he was denying his request to marry Laura Law, as it posed too many security problems.

“He’s just going to have to wait,” said the judge.

*   *   *

Two days later the government named Ben Novack’s secret mistress in a sensational motion.
It asked Judge Karas to allow the jury to hear about the Novacks’ 2002 home invasion, claiming it established “a sick, vicious cycle” leading to the two murders.

It also revealed that, before his death, Ben had been supporting one-time exotic dancer and tattoo artist Rebecca Bliss in an apartment in Fort Lauderdale.
After discovering the affair in the summer of 2008, the motion claimed, a furious Narcy telephoned the landlord and ordered him to terminate the lease, as her husband was dead and there would be no further payments.

Then she had then gone to the FBI and accused Ben of arranging sham marriages, with Bliss being one of the unlawful brides.
A month later, Narcy notified Mexican customs officials that her husband had smuggled $10,000 in currency into Mexico.

The motion contended that after the FBI failed to act, Narcy and her brother Cristobal began hatching the plan to murder Bernice and Ben Novack.

*   *   *

Ten days later, an all-day pretrial hearing was held to rule on a defense motion that Narcy Novack’s seven-hour videotaped police interview should be inadmissible.
Senior investigator Edward Murphy testified that Narcy Novack had fully cooperated with law enforcement after her husband’s murder.

He admitted, however, under Howard Tanner’s questioning, that she had not been informed that the interview was being videotaped.

“We chose not to tell her,” he said.
“She was not a suspect.”

After a lunch recess, Narcy Novack dramatically took the stand.
Wearing a Westchester County Correctional Center standard orange jumpsuit, her graying brown hair in a ponytail, she was sworn into the witness box.

She told her attorney Howard Tanner that she had been suicidal in the hours after Ben’s murder.
“There was a uniformed police officer with a gun on his belt,” she said.
“I tried to grab the gun.
My husband was gone and there was nothing I could do for him.”

Narcy claimed that all her statements after her husband’s murder were coerced, as she had been told that her questioning was a normal procedure she had to follow.
She also maintained that initially she had refused to take a lie detector test, but had been intimidated into it by detectives.

“They asked me to sign [the polygraph test forms],” she told Judge Karas.
“I said, ‘No, I’m tired.’
Then they locked me in the polygraph room and left me for twenty minutes.
They came back with May Abad and said she had taken hers and passed and was free to go.
[I took it] because I just wanted to be clean and recover the body and do what I wanted to do.”

Narcy said that after failing the polygraph test, the detectives’ attitude to her changed drastically.
“The detective came over and he was screaming at me and calling me names,” she claimed.
“I said, ‘Let me sleep for a couple of hours … either arrest me now or let me call a lawyer.
Then May Abad entered the polygraph room and she was going to hit me.
One of the [detectives] grabbed her, saying, ‘Leave her, we’re going to get her ass.’”

In cross-examination, Elliott Jacobson asked Novack if all the statements she had made to investigators were involuntary.

“I did not care to answer to anyone,” she snapped.
“I wanted to be left alone.”

At the end of the daylong hearing, Cristobal Veliz took the stand and claimed that Detective Murphy and Detective Sergeant Terence Wilson had entered and searched his apartment without his permission.
During his testimony, Narcy’s brother baffled the courtroom by insisting that the “Ed Murphy” who had questioned him was not the same “Ed Murphy” who had testified earlier.

“I have never seen him before in my life,” Veliz told the judge in a thick accent.