Linda Stein and the apartment at 151 Central Park West

The former home of murdered broker-to-the-stars [more]

After her March 22 sentencing was postponed, Natavia Lowery, the convicted killer of New York City broker to the stars Linda Stein, is slated to be sentenced today. After her February conviction, Lowery’s original sentencing date was postponed due to her stepfather’s courtroom outburst over the judge’s refusal to permit a change of counsel. Lowery had confessed to the 2007 killing, but later recanted her statement, claiming she was coerced. [more]

Convicted Linda Stein murderer Natavia Lowery saw her sentencing hearing postponed today, after her stepfather was reportedly dragged from the court while protesting the judge’s denial of a change of counsel for Lowery. The former assistant to the late super broker Stein has tried to change council numerous times throughout her trial, to no avail. When the possibility was once again brought before the judge today, Justice Richard Carruthers denied the request — and blasted Lowery’s proposed replacement, attorney Paul Brenner, for derisive comments he made about the current defense team. The resulting melee led to a misdemeanor contempt of court charge for Lowery’s stepfather and a sentencing delay for Lowery till April 26. Lowery was convicted in February on charges that she killed her boss, a former Prudential Douglas Elliman agent, in her Upper East Side apartment.

On the heels of Natavia Lowery’s conviction in the Linda Stein murder case, many in the industry are still asking how it could have happened. The two women’s interaction was a clash of wills, according to the New York Daily News, which painted the working relationship between Stein, the Prudential Douglas Elliman super-broker, and Lowery, her assistant, as a ticking time bomb. While Stein, who was reportedly prone to confrontations with her adversaries, had climbed a hardscrabble road to the top, Lowery had been equally strong-willed. “The Oct. 30, 2007, clash of two strong women who usually got what they wanted — in vastly different ways — seemed inevitable,” the New York Daily News said.

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
[more]

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.