Wife Charged in Hubby's Murder Accused in Mother-in-Law's Death

Prosecutor says Narcy Novack killed millionaire husband & mother-in-law

Bernice Novack is already facing charges related to the murder of her millionaire Fort Lauderdale husband, and now she could face more charges in the death of her mother-in-law.

The shocking allegation was made by a Federal prosecutor during Narcy Novack's appearance Wednesday in a Fort Lauderdale Federal court, where she's seeking her release from custody.

Narcy Novack, the widow of businessman Ben Novack Jr., may have also had a hand in the death of her late husband's mother, Bernice Novack, according to prosecutor Elliott Jacobson.

Bernice Novack, 86, was found dead in her Fort Lauderdale home in April 2009, just months before the July 2009 murder of Novack Jr. in an upstate New York hotel room.

Though the death was initially ruled accidental, Jacobson said Wednesday that Narcy Novack and her brother had schemed to kill her.

"Narcy Novack was complicit in the homicide of Bernice Novack," Jacobson said, adding that Bernice was beaten with a monkey wrench. Neither Nary Novack or her brother have been charged in Bernice Novack's death.

Narcy Novack has been held without bond since her arrest last Thursday in Fort Lauderdale on stalking and conspiring to commit interstate domestic violence charges related to the murder of Novack Jr.

The 53-year-old was indicted along with her brother, Cristobal Veliz, and two accomplices in New York last week in the July 12, 2009 murder of her husband.

Novack Jr., the 53-year-old heir to Miami Beach's Fontainebleau Hotel estate, was found beaten and killed in his Rye Brook, N.Y. Hilton hotel room, his hands and legs bound with tape. 

According to indictment documents, Narcy Novack led the killers into the hotel room and even handed them a pillow to smother her husband as they beat and slashed him to death. Jacobson said the killers beat Novack Jr. to death with dumbbells and gouged out his eyes with a utility knife, on Narcy Novack's orders.

The indictment claims Narcy Novack, Veliz, and the two other men, Denis Ramirez and Joel Gonzalez, had hatched the plan a month earlier. Gonzalez and another co-conspirator had even taken a scouting trip to the hotel two days before the killing.

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.

Novack Jr.'s mother left her estate to him, and Narcy Novack stood to inherit about $10 million after her husband's death.

Immediately considered a person of interest in the murder, Narcy Novack denied she had anything to do with the brutal slaying.

Narcy Novack's attorney called the newest allegations "purely speculative."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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