A Florida woman convicted of arranging the killings of her millionaire husband and mother-in-law will hear her sentence Monday _ if she's in the courtroom.
A disgusted Narcy Novack, apparently certain she'd be found guilty, decided not to attend in June when a federal jury's verdict was read.
“We all wondered, `Where's Narcy?”' one juror said.
She and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, were convicted of hiring hit men to carry out the 2009 beating deaths of Ben Novack Jr. in a suburban New York hotel room and Bernice Novack at her Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home.
Ben Novack was the son of the man who built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, which appeared in the movies “Scarface” and “Goldfinger.”
The sentence will be bad news too _ the U.S. attorney's office has asked Judge Kenneth Karas to send Novack to prison for life, and her own lawyer is suggesting a 27-year stretch. He argues that she had only a minor role in Bernice Novack's death and was “substantially less culpable than other participants.”
He also said her crime-free background and her age should be considered.
Veliz's lawyer has not submitted a sentencing recommendation.
Novack, 56, an native of Ecuador who lived in Fort Lauderdale, would likely die in prison even under the 27-year scenario, defense attorney Howard Tanner said. But it would give her at least “a chance of reformation and rehabilitation.”
“She would be released from prison an elderly woman with virtually no possessions or home,” he told the judge. “Her future is in all respects bleak and limited.”
Prosecutor Elliott Jacobson said it should stay that way forever. He told the judge in court papers that Novack and Veliz “engaged in the very worst criminal conduct imaginable.”
“They are evil; they are dangerous; they are remorseless; and they are relentless,” he wrote. He said the killings “involved particularly cruel, sadistic and gratuitous savagery seldom seen in the annals of crime.”
Prosecutors said Novack feared that her husband, who was having an affair, would divorce her, and that a prenuptial agreement would bar her from the multimillion-dollar family estate.
She recruited her brother and he hired a group of thugs who testified about slamming Bernice Novack in the teeth and head with a plumber's wrench and beating Ben Novack with barbells and slicing his eyes with a knife.
Veliz denied any involvement and blamed Narcy Novack's daughter for the killings. Her two sons stand to inherit the bulk of the family estate, which includes Ben Novack's large collection of Batman memorabilia.
Narcy Novack did not testify. But before her arrest she gave police a striking account of her marriage, including that her husband had a fetish for amputees. She also said she once went into a hospital to have a broken nose repaired and awoke with breast implants she hadn't requested.
In addition to the murder charge, the defendants were convicted of domestic violence, stalking, money laundering and witness tampering. (AP)
<관련 한글 기사>
‘그는 변태였다!’ 갑부남편 둔 女 고백
미국에서 백만장자 남편과 시어머니를 살해한 혐의를 받고 있는 나르시 노박 (56)이 17일 (현지시간)으로 예정되어 있는 형(sentence) 선고에 참여하지 않을 예정이라고 AP통신이 보도했다.
보도에 따르면 노박은 지난 6월 그녀에 대한 배심원의 평결이 내려질 때도, 유죄를 확신하고 그 자리를 피했다고 한다. 결국 피고인이 없는 상태에서 배심원이 평결을 내려야 했다.
노박은 지난 2009년, 그녀의 남동생 크리스토발 벨리즈과 모의해 청부 살인자를 고용해 남편 벤 노박 2세을 뉴욕 호텔에서, 시어머니 베르니스 노박을 그녀의 플로리다 자택에서 살해한 혐의를 받고 있다.
살해당한 벤 노박 2세는 마이애미 해변에 있는 퐁텐블로 호텔의 창립자의 아들이다. 퐁텐블로 호텔은 영화 “스카페이스,” “골드핑거”에도 나온 적이 있는 유명한 호텔이다.
미국 연방 검사들은 노박이 종신형을 받을 것을 요청하고 있으며, 노박의 변호사는 27년 징역형을 요구하고 있다.
검사 측의 주장에 따르면, 불륜을 저지르고 있던 남편이 자신과 이혼할 것을 우려한 노박이 혼전 계약으로 인해 재산분할을 받지 못할 것이라고 생각해 이와 같은 짓을 저질렀다고 한다.
벨리즈는 자신이 전혀 이번 일과 상관이 없으며 나르시 노박의 딸이 진범이라고 주장한 것으로 알려졌다.
나르시 노박은 사건에 대해 증언하지 않았으나, 경찰 수사에서 자신의 남편의 변태적인 성적 취향을 공개해 논란이 되었다. 그녀는 자신이 한 때 부러진 코를 치료하기 위해 입원했는데 자신이 모르는 사이에 원치 않았던 가슴확대수술을 받은 적도 있다고 말했다.
이 사건으로 인해 부동산과 어마어마한 양의 배트맨 관련 수집품을 포함한 벤 노박 2세의 막대한 재산은 그의 두 아들이 물려받게 되었다고 한다.
