The Prince of Paradise (36 page)

F
ORTY-
T
HREE

FAMILY FEUD

On August 1, three weeks after Ben Novack Jr.’s murder, his body was still on ice at the Westchester County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Judaism dictates that a body should be buried within twenty-four hours of death, and Ben Novack Jr.’s had been ready for release to a funeral home since his autopsy.

“Nobody has claimed it,” said Westchester County deputy medical examiner Kunjlata Ashar.
“It’s up to the family members … we are done with whatever we had to do.”

Maxine Fiel said she was shocked that her nephew had still not been buried.
“Here is the Prince of the Fontainebleau,” she told
The Miami Herald
, “and he is being treated no better than a homeless person.”

Maxine said that Kelsey Grammer had even offered to pay for his friend’s burial, but Narcy refused permission.

“Kelsey offered to pay,” said Fiel.
“When I heard I wanted to call him and thank him, but [Narcy] was stalling and let him lay out there.”

Howard Tanner explained that his client was attempting to resolve “certain issues,” so a proper memorial could be held.

“She’s been through an unbelievable trauma, the murder of her husband,” he told a reporter.
“This [delay] has caused unspeakable grief, and she wants to resolve the matter.”

*   *   *

After Ben Novack Jr.’s killing, there was some confusion over whether his widow would inherit his estimated $10 million estate.

In his June 2006 will, Ben had left everything to Narcy, including all his yachts, cars, Batman collection, and the proceeds from his late parents’ respective estates.
He also bequeathed her all his business interests, although Convention Concepts Unlimited was not mentioned by name.
There were also likely millions of dollars more squirreled away in offshore accounts.

In the event that Narcy were to die first, he had bequeathed $100,000 to her daughter, May Abad, and $250,000 each to her grandsons, Marchelo and Patrick Gaffney.
He had also provided for his mother, if she survived him, giving her $30,000 a year for the rest of her life.

Fort Lauderdale probate attorney Carl Schuster, now handling both Bernice and Ben Novack Jr.’s estates, said probate courts usually appointed a personal representative whom the decedent had named in his will.
But in this case it was complicated, as Bernice Novack had appointed her late son as hers.

“Because of the circumstances of [Ben Jr.’s] death,” Schuster told the
Journal News
, “it’s muddied up the waters, for sure.”

Then on July 29, Narcy Novack officially asked Broward County Circuit Court to appoint her as her late husband’s executrix.
She also asked for permission to have Ben’s body cremated.
But the court refused, as his will requested that he be buried, with Narcy’s remains, next to his father in the Novack-Spier family mausoleum in Mount Lebanon Cemetery in Queens, New York.

*   *   *

On Wednesday, August 5, 2009, Cristobal Veliz had Francisco Picado drive him to Miami in his black Murano to retrieve Ben Novack’s bracelet.
With the ongoing police investigation, he and Narcy did not want the bracelet being found and linking them to Ben Novack’s murder.

“He wanted the bracelet back,” said Garcia.
“I said, ‘You gave it to me as a gift.’”

When Veliz offered Garcia something else in exchange, Garcia replied he wanted the rest of the money still owed him for the Ben Novack job.

“So he agreed and he came to Miami to give me my money,” said Garcia.
“He said to meet up at the gas station where Melvin used to have the car wash.”

At the appointed time, Garcia sat down with Jefe and Picado at a Subway restaurant near the car wash for the exchange.
During lunch, Veliz told Garcia to go to the restroom, where Picado would hand him the money.

“I went into the bathroom with Frank,” Garcia recalled, “and waited until some people left.
Frank handed me $3,000 [in $100 bills], which I put in my pocket.
I counted it later.”

They all then went back to the Murano, where Garcia gave Picado back the bracelet.

Suddenly Garcia demanded another $10,000, saying that as Ben Novack had died, he was owed more.
Then he warned Jefe that if anything were to happen to him, he had written a letter to Crime Stoppers detailing Veliz’s part in the two murders, and it would be mailed out.

“I was nervous,” Garcia later testified.
“I said if anything happens to me, then someone will send that letter.
He said everything is cool and he’s going to give me more money.”

The next day, Veliz and Picado were back in Brooklyn, going straight to Laura Law’s house in Bay Ridge.

“He took out Ben’s bracelet,” Picado said, “and put it in a yellow envelope with bubble wrap inside.
Then he went to take it to someone in the house.”

Then, after filling up the Murano’s gas tank and getting an oil change, Veliz had Picado drive him back to Miami.

*   *   *

On Friday, August 7, May Abad filed a legal objection to her mother being appointed executrix of Ben Novack Jr.’s estate.
Abad had now hired a Fort Lauderdale attorney named Stephen McDonald to represent her in the estate dispute.

“Considering Narcy’s … still a potential person of interest … in the murder,” explained probate attorney Carl Schuster, representing Ben Jr.’s estate, “it just seems inappropriate for her to be the one appointed under these circumstances.”

While her daughter was filing papers to prevent her gaining control of her late husband’s estate, Narcy Novack was visiting the North Federal Highway branch of the Bank of America.
Although she had no right to do so, she had persuaded a bank employee to allow her to access Ben Jr.’s and Bernice’s safe-deposit boxes, using a key she had brought with her.

Then she removed valuable items of jewelry and other family heirlooms, including the diamond necklace Frank Sinatra had given Bernice.

*   *   *

Five days later, Rye Brook Police launched a special Web site, seeking information from the public to try to crack the case.
The new site,
www.bennovackjr.com
,
*
asked for tips and any new details about the murder.
It also sought information about anybody near the hotel who had been wearing imitation Valentino sunglasses.
There was also a photo of the victim’s treasured gold bracelet, with “BEN” set in diamonds, and text stating that it may have been taken from the hotel room.

Rye Brook Police chief Greg Austin told
The Miami Herald
that it was by far the biggest case in his tiny village’s history.
He had now assigned three detectives and a uniformed officer to work on it full time.
Additionally, said Chief Austin, Westchester County Police and investigators from the district attorney’s office were assisting his team.

Austin refused to discuss any details, except to say that the Web site had already generated a few tips, which were now being pursued.

“This is a complicated case,” he explained.

*   *   *

In the weeks after her husband’s death, Narcy Novack attempted to dispose of Ben’s property.
She emptied all three safes in the house and tried to sell off the boats and several antique cars.

On Friday, August 14, May Abad’s attorney persuaded a circuit court judge to freeze her stepfather’s assets.
Narcy Novack was also removed as the executrix of her husband’s will, while the murder investigation was going on.

The Broward County Probate Court then appointed attorney Douglas Hoffman, of the Fort Lauderdale firm of Rudolf and Hoffman, as curator of Ben Novack Jr.’s estate.
Hoffman’s first order of business was to arrange for Ben Novack’s burial in the family mausoleum, according to his wishes.

“It was horrible,” Hoffman recalled.
“He’d already been left in the morgue for like thirty days before I was appointed.
All this time Narcy’s not cooperating with people.
She’s refusing to pay for [his burial,] and other members of the family are accusing her of killing him.
It was very emotionally charged and a media circus.”

Hoffman was also empowered to “collect and preserve” all the decedent’s assets and deliver them to the legally appointed personal representative for his estate.

“After Ben passed away a caveat was filed by May Abad that she was going to contest her mother being appointed as personal representative,” Hoffman explained.
“And the court, knowing there was going to be a fight, appointed a curator, someone to handle the administration while the fighting went on.
The inventory for the estate is complex, voluminous, extensive.
[Ben] was quite a collector.”

Within hours of Hoffman’s appointment, Narcy Novack and some helpers emptied out four of the six warehouses containing her late husband’s multimillion-dollar Batman collection.
She lied to the warehouse manager, saying that Ben was fine and had given his permission for the items to be removed.
Then she broke the locks on the warehouses and looted them, driving numerous boxes of collectibles away in a truck.

“Mr.
Novack has six warehouses filled up to the rafters with Batman memorabilia,” Hoffman’s partner, Gary Rudolf, later testified in probate court.
“He was supposedly the second largest Batman collector in the world.
Narcy Novack went out to the storage facilities [and] emptied four of them.”

*   *   *

The previous day, Thursday, August 13, four New York homicide investigators had driven to Philadelphia to interview Narcy’s brother Cristobal Veliz, now living in an apartment at 1219 Race Street, in the heart of Chinatown.
When they arrived at the seedy four-story brick apartment building, they rang his apartment 21’s entrance buzzer, but there was no answer.
The detectives eventually tracked down Veliz’s landlady at a nearby Chinese restaurant, who arranged to have her daughter let them into Velez’s apartment.

When they returned to the building in the afternoon, an investigator recognized Veliz’s old red Porsche parked outside.
They were taken upstairs by the landlady’s daughter, who knocked on the door of the apartment.
When there was no answer, she used a key to let herself in and called out, “Veliz!”

Cristobal Veliz immediately came out from a back bedroom.
After showing him his police identification, Senior Investigator Edward Murphy explained that they were investigating his brother-in-law Ben Novack’s death.
Veliz invited them inside, and Murphy went in with Detective Sergeant Terence Wilson, while Detectives Alison Carpentier and Michael LaRotonda waited in the hallway.

Sitting at the kitchen table, Murphy asked Veliz if there were problems in Narcy’s marriage, and if Ben had been cheating.
Veliz said there had been marital problems a few years earlier, resulting in Ben breaking his sister’s nose.
At the time, he had told Narcy not to divorce Ben and to work things out.

“Within the past year Narcy had told Cristobal about Ben having a girlfriend,” Murphy wrote in his official report, “and Cristobal told her to be patient, that it was normal for men to look outside of their marriage.”

Veliz said that when he’d stayed with them recently in Fort Lauderdale they had seemed very much in love.
He denied knowing anything about the 2002 home invasion.

Murphy then asked Veliz when he had last spoken to Narcy.
Two or three days ago, Veliz replied, adding that whenever they spoke after Ben’s death, she would be crying.
When the investigator asked when he had last been in Florida, Veliz said in April, for Bernice Novack’s funeral, which was the last time he had seen Narcy and Ben.

Murphy then asked if Narcy had ever discussed Ben’s girlfriend Rebecca Bliss.
He said yes, and he had told his sister that Ben had made a mistake.

Then the detectives asked Veliz to accompany them to the Philadelphia Police headquarters, a few blocks away, to give a written statement.
He agreed to do so, and went into the bedroom to get ready.

During the interview, the two detectives had noticed a Western Union money transfer receipt lying on top a pile of other papers on the kitchen table, where they were sitting.
Murphy had immediately recognized one of the names on it, Francisco Picado, as Denis Ramirez’s cousin, and an address in Brooklyn he’d visited a week earlier as part of the investigation.

When Veliz left to get changed, Murphy copied down the details in his notebook.