The Prince of Paradise (50 page)

Authors: John Glatt

BOOK: The Prince of Paradise

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F
IFTY-
F
IVE

THE VERDICT

At 11:00
A.M
.
on Monday, June 18—the thirty-sixth day of the trial—the eight men and four women of the jury entered their deliberation room to try to reach a verdict.
Over the nine-week trial there had been nearly sixty witnesses, more than three hundred exhibits, and four hundred pages of testimony to examine.

Ninety minutes into deliberation, the jurors sent a note to Judge Karas requesting the testimony of Gladys Cuenca and Francisco Picado.
Then, at 6:00
P.M
., the jury left, ending its first day of deliberation.

Deliberation resumed at 9:45 on Tuesday morning, and an hour later the jury asked Judge Karas for the legal definition of “robbery.”
This was significant, because to find the defendants guilty of Ben Novack’s felony murder, the government had to prove that the two killers had taken his diamond bracelet, making the crime a robbery.
The bracelet had never been recovered.

While the jury continued to deliberate throughout the day, Larry Sheehan and Howard Tanner remained outside the courtroom chatting with journalists and trying to keep a positive spin on things.

Late Tuesday afternoon, jurors asked the judge to clarify some of the charges as far as they related to racketeering conspiracy.
After consulting all the attorneys, the judge called the jury back into the courtroom and did so.

At 5:30
P.M
., jurors sent in a note saying they wanted to leave for the day, and they were excused.

* * *

On Wednesday morning, temperatures hit 93 degrees in White Plains as jurors began their third day of deliberations.

Then, at 11:45
A.M
., lead court security officer Tom Delehanty walked into Judge Karas’s courtroom holding a white envelope.
The judge, who was now presiding over another trial for illegal gun possession, opened it and announced, “We have a verdict.”

It had taken the jury sixteen hours to reach it.

Over the next hour, there was great expectation as word of the verdict spread.
As the gun case continued, Court 521 began filling up with some of the major players in the Novack/Veliz case.
Westchester County district attorney Janet Di Fiore took a front-row seat in the public gallery, alongside Rye Brook Police chief Greg Austin and Detective Sergeant Terence Wilson, who came with former detective Alison Carpentier.

At 12:20
P.M
., after the gun trial recessed for lunch, the prosecutors and defense attorneys for the Novack/Veliz trial retook their places for the verdict.

A U.S.
marshal brought in Cristobal Veliz, but there was no sign of his sister.
A few seconds later, Howard Tanner walked in from the holding pen, shaking his head.

“Your Honor,” he said.
“My client has informed me that she doesn’t want to be present for the verdict.
I recommended that she be there, but she nevertheless wants to decline that right.
She can hear everything from outside.”

After confirming Narcy Novack’s right not to be present at her own verdict, Judge Karas requested that she be brought in to confirm that she in fact didn’t want to attend it.
She was led into the court, looking defiant and refusing to acknowledge the judge.

“Is she going to talk through you?”
Judge Karas asked her attorney.

“Yes,” Tanner replied.

“Is it your intention,” the judge asked, “that you not be in the courtroom when the jury give its verdict?”

“She whispered in my ear, ‘Yes,’” her attorney replied.

“Miss Novack,” Jude Karas said.
“If you want to leave, you can leave now.”

* * *

A few minutes later, the jury filed into the courtroom to deliver its verdict.
The jurors were given no explanation for Narcy Novack’s absence from the defense table.

Then the clerk of the court read out the charges one by one, and the jury forewoman, Aro Edwers, responded to each charge in a loud, clear voice.

The jurors found both defendants guilty of all the charges except one, violent crime in aid of racketeering.
This meant that they were not guilty of the felony murder of Ben Novack, as the government had failed to prove that Novack’s gold bracelet had been taken and that a robbery had been committed.

Narcy Novack, who could hear the verdict from a holding pen, was convicted of twelve of the thirteen counts against her.
Her brother Cristobal Veliz was convicted of fourteen of the fifteen counts against him.
He showed no visible reaction.

The verdict meant that the siblings now faced spending the rest of their lives in federal prison.

Then the judge dismissed the jury and set sentencing for November 1, at 10:00
A.M
.

* * *

Outside the courthouse, Detective Sergeant Terence Wilson of the Rye Brook Police Department, who had devoted three years of his life to bringing Narcy Novack and Cristobal Veliz to justice, said he was delighted with the jury’s decision.

“We are very happy,” he said.
“Bernice can now rest in peace.”

Maxine Fiel also applauded the verdict, saying she hoped Narcy Novack died in prison, for what she did to her sister.
“That is such good news, I’m crying,” said Fiel.
“The woman’s a sociopath.
I hope she never sees the light of day again.”

Westchester County D.A.
Janet DiFiore, who’d turned the case over to federal prosecutors at the end of 2009, refused to comment on the verdict as she left the courtroom.
A few hours later she issued a statement: “These defendants, modern day ‘public enemies,’ planned, orchestrated, enlisted accomplices and assisted in the brutal killing of Ben Novack Jr.
here in Westchester and his mother Bernice Novack in Florida.”

U.S.
attorney Preet Bharara also issued a press statement, saying justice had been served.
“Narcy Novack and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, will now have to answer for the blood of Ben Novack and his elderly mother.”

Hours after the verdict, the fight began for Ben Novack Jr.’s millions.
If Narcy Novack is barred from her share of his estate by Florida’s Killer Statute, May Abad’s sons, Patrick and Marchelo Gaffney, will inherit it, with their mother receiving $150,000.

Within days of the verdict, a lawyer representing Ben Novack’s adopted half-brother, Ronald Novack, filed a suit contesting the will.
Maxine Fiel and her two daughters are also expected to challenge it, and Ben Novack’s cousin Andrea Danenza Wynn, who is married to Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn.

But there could be complications, as the jury did not technically convict Narcy of murdering Ben, so she may still try to argue that she is exempt from the Killer Statute and claim her husband’s estate.

EPILOGUE

At 11:00 A.M.
on Monday, December 17, Narcy Novack and Cristobal Veliz were brought into Judge Kenneth Karas’s courtroom for sentencing.
Dressed in a dark blue prison uniform, her long graying hair severely tied back in a ponytail by two rubber bands, Narcy stared straight ahead defiantly.
Her sixty-year-old brother Cristobal, wearing beige scrubs and looking drawn and haggard, sat down at the defense table with his new attorney, Michael Keesee.
After his guilty verdict he had fired Larry Sheehan.

Five jurors were back in the jury box for the sentencing, and producers for
48 Hours
and
Dateline
were in the public gallery.

A week earlier Harold Tanner had appealed to Judge Karas to send his fifty-six-year-old client to prison for just twenty-seven years, instead of the life sentence the government was demanding.
In his sentencing recommendation Tanner wrote that this would still be a “virtual death sentence” and sufficient punishment.

But federal prosecutors disagreed, saying the siblings should never be freed.

“They are evil; they are dangerous; they are remorseless; and they are relentless,” read the government’s recommendation.
“They bear responsibility for the untold suffering and horrific deaths of two innocent human beings, one of them an eighty-six-year-old woman.”

Tanner began by telling Judge Karas that Narcy Novack did not wish to attend her sentencing.
After questioning Novack to ascertain that she was doing so voluntarily, Judge Karas dismissed her from the courtroom and she was led out to a holding area where she could hear the proceedings.

Her attorney then asked the judge not to sentence Narcy to life, saying there was only circumstantial evidence against her in Bernice Novack’s killing.
However, Judge Karas disagreed, saying there had been “plenty of evidence” against her.

Veliz’s new attorney, Keesee, was also pleading for leniency on his client’s behalf, claiming he was less culpable than his sister for the murders.

“Cristobal Veliz is not the evil monster the government claims,” read his sentencing recommendation.
“He did not deliver the blows that caused Mr.
Novack’s death.”

Lead prosecutor Elliott Jacobson then addressed the court, branding the siblings “pathological liars” and “extraordinarily dangerous psychopaths,” going on to add: “The only sentence that would ensure the safety of the law-abiding community is a sentence that assures these defendants will spend the rest of their lives in jail,” he declared.

Before being sentenced, Cristobal Veliz exercised his right to address the court, still protesting his innocence.

“I was tricked,” he told Judge Karas through a Spanish interpreter.
“I was deceived.
The real criminal, the one who arranged this whole thing, was May Abad.
They have no evidence against me.”

Karas then turned his attention to the siblings’ sentencing.
He began by saying he could find no mitigating factors for Narcy Novack’s crimes.

“There’s really nothing to explain what she did,” he said.
“She lived a life of privilege.
If she had a marriage she wasn’t happy with … she could have gotten a divorce.”

He then sentenced Narcy Novack and Cristobal Veliz to spend the rest of their natural lives in prison for orchestrating the “vile” killings of Ben Jr.
and Bernice Novack.
He described the two murders as “gruesome,” saying they sent “a shiver” down his spine.

“At the end of the day it was because of Ms.
Novack’s greed and her selfishness,” said the judge, “and what she thought was her ability to manipulate people, there are two innocent people—her husband and her mother-in-law—who are dead.”

Judge Karas said Narcy’s refusal to remain in court for her sentencing only proved she was a coward.

“Her final act of cowardice was walking out of this courtroom today,” he said.

Judge Karas said Narcy had believed she could “outsmart” everybody, and her motive for killing her husband and mother-in-law was “old-fashioned greed.”

“She even tried to manipulate this whole trial through the press,” he said.
“At the end of the day she’s a coward.”

The judge also fined her $250,000 as well as ordering both defendants to pay $105,515 to Novack Enterprises, the amount stolen at the Amway convention after Ben Novack’s murder.

Judge Karas then addressed Cristobal Veliz, saying he had never witnessed a worse case of perjury in his entire career, describing it as “an affront to the criminal justice system.

“It’s shameful,” he told Veliz.
“I’ve never seen anything like it.
After he said his name, I’m not sure he said a truthful thing.”

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore later applauded the life sentences.

“Today Narcy Novack and Cristobal Veliz are finally being held accountable for their gruesome and brutal conduct,” she stated.
“It was pure greed that drove their evil scheme to steal millions of dollars from the Novack family by murdering Ben Novack Jr.
[and] his elderly mother.
This dangerous brother-sister team will now be where they belong—behind bars for the rest of their natural lives.”

* * *

After the sentencing Harold Tanner said Narcy Novack would be appealing the verdict on several unspecified grounds.

A
LSO BY
J
OHN
G
LATT

Love Her to Death

Lost and Found

Playing with Fire

Secrets in the Cellar

To Have and to Kill

Forgive Me, Father

The Doctor’s Wife

One Deadly Night

Depraved