Linda Stein trial update: Jury selection postponed

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