Ex-Lover And Admitted Hit Woman Testifies In Murder Trial Of Boonton Husband
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A Boonton, New Jersey man on trial Wednesday in the murder of his wife faced a former lover and alleged accomplice who admitted to carrying out the murder.
Kashif Parvaiz has been on trial this week on charges in the murder of his wife, Nazish Noorani, in August 2011.
As CBS2's Christine Sloan reported, the alleged hit-woman, Antoinette Stephen, already pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy and weapons charges in the case in May 2013 and agreed to cooperate against Parvaiz.
Stephen admitted that she shot and killed Noorani as she pushed the 3-year-old she had with Parvaiz down a quiet street in Boonton.
Weeping, Stephen told jurors she did it because Parvaiz convinced her that Noorani was a bad mother – withholding blood transfusions to their sick son. But prosecutors said it was all a lie.
In being questioned by a prosecutor, Stephen said Parvaiz never told her to stop, and never got in front of his son, at the time of the fatal shooting.
Stephen also admitted to wounding Parvaiz back in 2011, in what she described as a "pre-arranged hit" made to look like a robbery.
But the defense in the case said Stephen has changed her stories several times, and claimed she was trying to get her sentence reduced.
In the initial charges in the case, police said Parvaiz and Stephen teamed up to get Noorani out of the picture and said they found incriminating text messages between the two leading up to the murder.
"You hang in there. Freedom is just around ur (sic) corner," read a text message prosecutors said Parvaiz received from Stephen.
Authorities said Stephen also wounded Parvaiz to make it look a random racial attack. The child was not hurt.
Another woman to whom Parvaiz allegedly had been engaged while married to Noorani also testified for the prosecution Wednesday.
On Thursday, jurors will hear from a detective who prosecutors said discovered emails Parvaiz sent to black magic artists – asking them to put spells on his wife to make her disappear.
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