Novack Millionaire Murder Trial Gets Underway
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSMiami/AP) – It's day one in the trial of Narcy Novack who is accused in the murder of her Ft. Lauderdale millionaire husband and his mother.
In court Monday, a federal prosecutor said a prenuptial agreement may have motivated Novack to arrange the killing of her husband Ben Novack. Prosecutor Perry Perrone said the prenup meant Novack would get $65,000 if her husband divorced her. However, if he predeceased her she would get nearly all of his multi-million-dollar estate.
Perrone said witnesses during the trial will include an exotic dancer who was having an affair with Ben Novack, as well as the actual killers and the getaway drivers.
Narcy and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, 57, of Brooklyn, are accused of orchestrating the killings of her husband and his mother, Bernice Novack in 2009.
Narcy is accused of letting the killers into the room and ordering them to cut out her husband's eyes, which were sliced with knives.
Novack's lawyer claimed she had nothing to do with it, as she told police during recorded interviews.
They both face automatic life in prison if convicted of murder in aid of racketeering.
Ben Novack was the son of the founder of the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach. He was beaten to death at the Hilton hotel in Rye Brook, N.Y., where his travel company had organized an Amway convention. His 86-year-old mother had been killed in her Fort Lauderdale home three months earlier. Her death was first ruled an accident but reclassified a homicide after her son's killing.
If Novack is convicted, her husband's estate would go principally to the two sons of her daughter May Abad, who was Ben Novack's stepdaughter. Abad has filed a lawsuit in Florida to block her mother's access to the estate and is expected to testify for the prosecution.
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