The widow of a Fort Lauderdale millionaire hotel heir who has been charged in his murder says she can't afford her lawyer and wants taxpayers to pay him.
Narcy Novack has requested to keep her private attorney, who she can no longer afford, but put him on the government's payroll. The 53-year-old made the request during an appearance in a federal court in upstate New York Wednesday, near the site of the hotel where her husband was found slain in his room in July 2009.
Novack has been held without bail since her arrest in Fort Lauderdale in July. She was later extradited to New York to face the charges, which include stalking and conspiring to commit interstate domestic violence.
Novack and three accomplices -- including her brother -- were arrested in the bloody killing of Ben Novack Jr., the heir to Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel estate.
Novack Jr., 53, was found beaten and killed in his Rye Brook, N.Y. Hilton hotel room on July 12, 2009. Prosecutors allege Narcy Novack let two killers into the hotel room, watched as they beat her husband with dumbbells and ordered them to cut his eyes out as he lay with his hands and legs bound with tape. They claim she even handed them a pillow to smother her husband as they beat and slashed him to death.
The couple, who were married for 19 years, were in New York for a convention. Novack was the President and CEO of Convention Concepts Unlimited, based in Fort Lauderdale. Narcy, who stood to inherit millions from her husband, has also been accused of but not charged in the murder of mother-in-law Bernice Novack just two months before Ben's murder.
Narcy Novack's assets were frozen and she was blocked from access to her husband's estate, which includes one of the largest collections of Batman memorabilia collections in the country. The estate is estimated to be worth around $10 million.
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Novack had plead not guilty to the charges and has denied having anything to do with her husband's death.
