It took just four hours for a jury to convict Natavia Lowery of murdering her boss and broker-to-the-stars Linda Stein. Natavia Lowery, 28, was found guilty today of second-degree murder and 21 counts of grand larceny, identity theft, forgery and petty larceny. She faces up to life in prison. Following an argument, Lowery brutally beat Stein, 62, to death Oct. 30, 2007 inside the Prudential Douglas Elliman broker’s 18th-floor penthouse apartment at 965 Fifth Avenue, between 77th and 78th streets. The prosecution’s case featured written and videotaped confessions in which Lowery said she beat Stein with a yoga stick, surveillance footage, phone records, bank records, cell phone tower and subway card records to track movement as well as witnesses. Stein was widely-known for her multi-million listings and celebrity clientele, including Billy Joel, Sting, Michael Douglas and Steven Spielberg, and her past as a manager to punk rock group the Ramones. TRD
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The jury will start deliberations today in Manhattan Supreme Court in
the murder case of star Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Linda Stein
after closing arguments yesterday in which the prosecution and defense
both admitted much of the confession of Stein’s accused killer was made
up. It was on the subject of who did the fabricating, however, where the two sides diverged wildly. Both sides admitted that Linda Stein was not killed with a weighted
yoga stick, as her assistant and accused killer, Natavia Lowery, had
stated in both her written and videotaped confessions. Nor did the
former punk rock group manager-turned-real estate broker blow marijuana
smoke in Lowery’s face setting off the fatal Oct. 30. 2007 bludgeoning
inside Stein’s Fifth Avenue apartment. And the number of times that
Lowery, 28, allegedly admitted striking Stein was off. According to
Lowery’s confessions, she said either six or 10 but the medical
examiner estimated somewhere north of two dozen. Defense attorney Thomas Giovanni tried to convince the jury that these
“guesses” and “lies” were fed to Lowery by detectives and she only
begrudgingly regurgitated these details as well as her “I did it”
confession to stop what had been a relentless 12 hours of
“interrogation.” “That’s the definition of a false confession,” he told the jurors during his 90-minute closing arguments yesterday. [more]

Closing arguments are set to commence today at 100 Centre Street in the
murder trial of Natavia Lowery (middle) who is accused of killing her
former boss, Linda Stein (right)

The murder case against the personal assistant to celebrity real estate
broker Linda Stein will go to closing arguments today and then onto the
jury for a verdict without so much as one witness being presented by
the defense.
Before resting its case on Thursday, the prosecution introduced one
final piece of evidence that will probably take center stage in the
government’s summations today. A set of photographs were submitted for
the jurors to look at when they start deliberations but no further
explanation was given at the time.
Today, prosecutors will point out the fact that the photos, stills
taken from the security camera system at Stein’s Fifth Avenue building
on the day she was bludgeoned to death, show personal assistant Natavia
Lowery, 28, entering the building wearing her pants normally and
leaving later that day with those pants turned inside-out. What other
reason would Lowery have to wear her pants like that aside from trying
to hide blood stains, the prosecutors are expected to say to the jury.
It’s to be seen if Lowery’s attorney’s have any such “a-ha” moments up
their sleeves. But at this point summation is all they have left
because on Thursday Lowery’s defense team announced that it would not
be putting on any witnesses and rested its case. [more]

Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman (left) says that murder suspect Natavia Lowery (middle) “has got to testify” in the Linda Stein (right) slay case

With the prosecution’s case against celebrity real estate broker Linda Stein’s personal assistant winding down, lawyers for accused murderer Natavia Lowery will soon have to make the ultimate defense call; whether to have her testify or not.
The trial will start its fourth week Tuesday after a four-day hiatus caused by presidential holidays sandwiching a weekend.
So far some of the evidence produced against Lowery, who is charged with Stein’s Oct. 30, 2007 murder and grand larceny, has included bank and credit card records detailing more than $30,000 of theft. There has been testimony that the 28-year-old Lowery answered Stein’s cell phone and told people the broker was out when video revealed Stein, 62, hadn’t left the building the day she was killed. And then there were Lowery’s written and videotaped confessions to the murder. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to discuss the case and Lowery’s attorneys’ office was closed today and they couldn’t be reached for comment. So The Real Deal instead asked three of the city’s most experienced criminal defense attorneys what they would if they were in the position of Lowery’s attorneys. [more]

Natavia Lowery, the accused killer of the late super-broker Linda Stein, allegedly crumbled during an interrogation, police testified in court today. During her statement to the police, Lowery reportedly confessed to the murder and recanted an earlier statement about a purported black-clad male killer she had contended was responsible for the slaying. The taped confession, which cops recorded 10 days after Stein’s death, has been the subject of considerable controversy over the course of the investigation, with Lowery maintaining that the statement was coerced and false. During the statement, Lowery claimed that Stein had pushed her to a breaking point, at which she snapped and bludgeoned the victim in the head with a three-foot-long yoga stick, before cleaning off the murder weapon and leaving the scene.

From left: Natavia Lowery and Thomas Giovanni, a member of Lowery’s legal team

More drama unfolded today in the trial of Natavia Lowery, the former assistant of the late Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Linda Stein, whom she is accused of murdering. Lowery had requested a change of counsel, according to the New York Times, on the grounds that her current legal team, Thomas Giovanni, John Christie and Wilfredo Sta. Ana of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, was “not pursuing a theory or strategy of defense that [she] believe[s] is adequate.” State Supreme Court of Manhattan Judge Richard Carruthers denied the request, after which Lowery’s supporters, including her mother and stepfather, began shouting in protest. Despite Lowery’s complaints, the assistant district attorney on the case, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, said that the defendant was just trying to buy time. “This is nothing more than gamesmanship on the part of an unhappy defendant who sees the writing on the wall,” Illuzzi-Orbon said. Lowery is accused of allegedly bludgeoning to death super-broker Stein in the Elliman agent’s apartment on Oct. 30, 2007.

 
L to R: Elliman’s Louise Stocker; Linda Stein’s ex Seymour Stein; Linda Stein; and suspect Natavia Lowery

A couple weeks before Linda Stein was murdered, a Prudential Douglas Elliman colleague of the one-time punk-rock manager turned high-powered broker received a chilling response from Stein’s personal assistant to a question intended as friendly small talk. “I said how’s it going to Natavia [Lowery], regarding just her working — making small talk,” Louise Stocker, an Elliman agent who sat at the desk next to Stein’s for five years, testified in Manhattan Supreme Court today. “We worked in close quarters, just being friendly and she answered in a determined voice, ‘we’re going to put an end to this.’” [more]

More than five hours after Linda Stein was believed to have been bludgeoned to death inside her Fifth Avenue apartment, her personal assistant left a message on the one-time punk rock manager turned celebrity real estate broker’s voice mail (listen to audio clip above). “Hey Linda, it’s Natavia,” began the message, which was played at the murder trial of the assistant, Natavia Lowery, in Manhattan Supreme Court. As the voice mail continued, Lowery, 28, told Stein that her ex-husband Seymour had called earlier that day then stated it was around 5:30 p.m. and that she was “leaving the office,” purportedly referring to the office of Prudential Douglas Elliman where Stein worked. “I hope that the [property] showing goes well,” Lowery’s brief message ended, “and I’ll see you tomorrow.” [more]

The late Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Linda Stein had suspicions that someone was stealing from her, according to Friday’s testimony from a close personal friend of Stein, who was found murdered in her Upper East Side apartment in 2007. Mark Benecke, who reportedly sold homes with Stein, told the court that Stein confided in him that she believed she was being ripped off by someone she knew. The next day at 1 p.m. Benecke said he called her apartment — from which she also worked — but that this assistant Natavia Lowery, who stands accused of murdering Stein, answered the phone. Benecke alleges that Lowery said Stein had left the apartment to take a walk, but security tapes show that Stein never left her apartment that day. What the footage does show, however, is Lowery leaving the building and returning numerous times, at one point carrying Stein’s purse. See above for footage from the Gothamist.

From left: Mandy Stein, daughter of the late broker Linda Stein (middle), and defendant Natavia Lowery

A lawyer for Natavia Lowery, the woman charged with killing Linda Stein, a former celebrity real estate broker and punk rock manager, said yesterday his client falsely admitted to the murder to give the detectives who questioned her “what they wanted to hear.”
The lawyer, John Christie, said the detectives who investigated Stein’s murder invited his client, Lowery, 28, to meet with them in a diner in November 2007. She was then taken to the 7th police precinct and questioned for 10 hours. Lowery had gotten through life by telling people “what they wanted to hear,” Christie said, and she did the same that day, wishing to end the interrogation.
Stein, 62, was found bludgeoned on the floor of her Fifth Avenue apartment Oct. 30, 2007. Stein’s family sold 18C, Stein’s one-bedroom, one-bathroom penthouse apartment at 965 Fifth Avenue, for $1.045 million in August 2008.
Yesterday, the 13th floor courtroom of Manhattan’s State Supreme Court was packed for the opening statements. The case has attracted wide attention due to Stein’s celebrity status — her clients included Sting, Elton John, Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley, and Angelina Jolie. She co-managed the band the Ramones prior to becoming a broker.
Christie admitted Lowery was guilty of stealing money from Stein, but said she was not someone able to carefully plan Stein’s murder and hide all the traces. She could not have prevented the blood, which splattered up to three feet high, to get on her clothes, Christie said. DNA evidence found on the scene did not link Lowery to the crime.
“Natavia is not a savvy criminal,” Christie said. “She is not capable of doing what happened to Linda Stein.” [more]