Elliman sales manager Ronald Tardanico

Four days before high-power real estate broker Linda Stein was beaten
to death in her Upper East Side apartment, the personal assistant now
on trial for her murder complained to the Prudential Douglas Elliman
sales manager about the way Stein was treating her and requested
another assignment. Ronald Tardanico, the sales manager in charge of Elliman’s 980 Madison
Avenue office, testified today that on Oct. 26, 2007, Natavia Lowery
approached him and complained that Stein was forcing her to do non-real
estate-related tasks such as applying Stein’s makeup and answering
personal e-mails. When defense attorney Thomas Giovanni asked if Lowery
also complained about Stein yelling and screaming at her, Tardanico
said, “I don’t recall that.” After listening to Lowery’s complaint, Tardanico said he gave her some options about how they could handle it. “I told her that she could resign, we could reposition you in the
company, if such a position exists, or you could work things out,”
Tardanico said on the stand in Lowery’s trial on murder and grand
larceny charges in Manhattan Supreme Court. Tardanico said he told Lowery to, “sleep on it over the weekend. Let me know on Monday what you want to do.” When Monday came and passed without Lowery bringing the subject up
again, Tardanico said he assumed she had dropped it and was going to
try to work things out with Stein. The next day, Stein, 62, was found bludgeoned to death inside her Fifth Avenue high-rise. [more]

 
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]

From left: Natavia Lowery and Linda Stein

Jury selection continued today in the case of Natavia Lowery, the former personal assistant to Linda Stein who is charged with killing the celebrity real estate broker.

Twenty-eight potential jurors were brought into a courtroom on the 13th floor or Manhattan’s State Supreme Court before Justice Richard Carruthers.

Lowery, 28, dressed in a khaki top and dark brown pants, listened to her lawyer as the jurors were seated. Her mother, Lottie Lowery Walsh, sat in the back of the courtroom apparently praying.

Stein, 62, was found bludgeoned on the floor of her Fifth Avenue apartment Oct. 30, 2007. A week and half later, Lowery was arrested, and she allegedly confessed to killing Stein by hitting her multiple times with a yoga stick in a videotaped interview. She later recanted her statement. TRD [more]

From left: Natavia Lowery and Linda Stein

Jury selection continued today in the case of Natavia Lowery, the former personal assistant to broker Linda Stein, who is charged with killing the broker-to-the-stars in October 2007.

In Manhattan’s State Supreme Court, 70 potential jurors filed into a courtroom on the 13th floor where Justice Richard Carruthers explained how Stein, who was a top producer for Prudential Douglas Elliman, was “known in the real estate and entertainment world in New York.” Stein, who worked in Elliman’s 980 Madison Avenue office, counted Sting, Madonna and Billy Joel among her clients.

As on Tuesday, which was the most recent day of the trial — Wednesday was off — jurors today were then led behind closed doors today to fill out a basic questionnaire and asked if they were available for a two-month trial.

Also likely to be argued today by attorneys for Lowery, 28, who is clad in a gray top and pants in the courtroom, is whether jurors should be allowed to watch a videotaped confession from Lowery, given to police, or merely read its transcript, as defense attorneys prefer. [more]

Natavia Lowery, who stands accused of killing broker Linda Stein, for whom she worked as a personal assistant, resides in the “punitive segregation” section in Rikers Island because she was found to have thrown liquid at a guard, according to a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Correction. The type of liquid is still under investigation, the spokesperson said.
However, the guard was taken to the hospital to be cleaned and have her eyes checked out. The incident occurred Jan. 2. That same day, following the liquid toss, Lowery was relocated from her longtime cell — where she has spent more than two years — and put in a new one in the harsher
“punitive segregation” section. That part, which functions as sort of a jail within a jail, could be Lowery’s home until at least April. While it is, the spokesperson said, she can only leave her cell for an hour of mandated recreation a day, and, say, visits or religious services. Those in the general population at Rikers, meanwhile, are free to leave their cells during daylight hours. The trial was supposed to begin Monday morning. But just as soon as it started, in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court, Justice Richard Carruthers confusingly sent everybody home because Lowery was wearing an orange jumpsuit. Today, some of the mystery was cleared up. [more]

Natavia Lowery (left), one-time assistant to broker Linda Stein (right), is charged with Stein’s murder

Natavia Lowery, who is accused of murdering her boss, Linda Stein, the megawatt Prudential Douglas Elliman broker who died in October 2007, was a chronic thief with past employers, prosecutors said today in Manhattan’s State Supreme Court. In a preliminary hearing to lay out the trial’s ground rules, Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi spelled out new instances of stealing by Lowery, in addition to the already publicized case of identity theft involving a former Brooklyn roommate. For one, Lowery stole “thousands of dollars” from Planned Parenthood, where she temped before becoming Stein’s assistant, in a racket that involved buying items on a corporate credit card and then returning them for cash, Illuzzi said. The scam, which prosecutors discovered after going through receipts confiscated from Lowery, also prevented her from landing full-time employment with the agency, whose directors could testify in the trial. “Her skills and attitude weren’t ones that they thought were appropriate for permanent work,” Illuzzi told Justice Richard Carruthers. [more]

From left: Linda Stein and her former assistant, Natavia Lowery, who is on trial for her 2007 murder

Jury selection in the trial of Natavia Lowery, the personal assistant accused of murdering Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Linda Stein, began this morning but was postponed after Lowery arrived wearing prison garb, according to the Department of Corrections. Inmates are entitled to wear civilian clothing when appearing before a judge and a jury, said Stephen Morello, a department spokesperson, but the jail staff misread Lowery’s accompanying paperwork. Jury selection will resume
tomorrow morning. Stein, a high-end broker whose clients included Billy Joel,

Sting, Michael Douglas and Steven Spielberg, was found dead in her
Upper East Side apartment Oct. 30, 2007. Lowery, 28, confessed to killing Stein by
hitting her multiple times with a yoga stick after she was arrested
a week and a half later, but then recanted, saying her story was
false. The videotaped confession is expected to be the prosecution’s main piece of evidence, while the defense is expected to argue that Lowery, who now faces
charges of murder and manslaughter, was coerced into her admission without a lawyer present. TRD

[more]