The personal assistant to "realtor to the stars" Linda Stein was
sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in prison for beating Stein to
death in her Park Avenue apartment.
Manhattan Supreme Court
Justice Richard Carruthers said Natavia Lowery, 28, "acted with uncommon
and almost inhuman calculation," calmly lying to Stein's ex-husband and
friends "at a time when her bloody corpse lay at her feet."
"An
old and wise adage: The truth will come to light. Murder cannot be hid
long," the judge said.
Lowery was convicted in February of
second-degree murder
in Stein's 2007 slaying. She also was found guilty of stealing
thousands of dollars from Stein.
Lowery received an additional
seven years for the larceny convictions, bringing her total sentence to
32 years to life.
Lowery read from a statement, her voice barely
audible in a crowded courtroom ringed with a dozen deputies.
"The
fight has just begun," she said. "My innocence will continuously remain
as it did since October 20, 2007. This case was turned into a media
circus, it was never about evidence."
Stein's daughters offered
emotional victim impact statements at the sentencing
hearing.
"I toss and turn, unable to sleep because of the vivid
imagery of my dead mother," said the victim's daughter, Mandy Stein.
She found her mother's bludgeoned body.
Where is your
apology? You can't even look me in the eye.
--Samantha
Stein-Wells, victim's daughter
Her older sister, Samantha Stein-Wells,
directed her comments to Lowery.
"Natavia, there's so much I
want to say to you but cannot say in this courtroom. I'm a lady," she
said. "Where is your apology? You can't even look me in the eye.
Natavia, you know the truth. You will forever live the legacy of a
murderer and a thief."
She had given detectives a written and
verbal confession, which she later recanted, according to police and
prosecutors.
Prosecutors had asked for the maximum sentence, 40
years to life in prison.
"Imagine the kind of person it takes to
stand there and crush her skull, literally beating her to death,"
Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzi-Orbon told the judge. "Imagine
what it felt like to stand over someone and crush her skull repeatedly."
Stein "had no idea she was letting in a sociopath" when she
hired Lowery, she said.
Defense attorney Paul Brenner said he
would appeal.
Brenner, who didn't try the case, was emotional in
court, saying he was outraged that Lowery was expected to apologize or
show remorse for something she says she didn't do.
"She's
unjustly accused," he said.
Stein, 62, was one New York City's
top real estate brokers and was known for her list of celebrity clients,
including Madonna, Sting, Michael Douglas and Angelina Jolie.
She got her first taste of the limelight as manager of the Ramones
-- a legendary punk rock group of the 1970s.
Stein was found dead
in her posh Fifth Avenue apartment in October 2007, a victim of "blunt
impact injuries of the head and neck," the New York medical examiner's
office said.
Police said no sign of forced entry was found at the
apartment.
Lowery told police that Stein had been verbally
abusive to her and on the day of the murder had blown marijuana smoke
into her face and waved a "yoga stick" at her, NYPD Commissioner Ray
Kelly said at the time.
Lowery had been Stein's personal
assistant for four months, Kelly said.
Lowery's
only known previous arrest stemmed from an identity theft case in 2006,
in which she stole another woman's identification and used it to get a
credit card in her name, Kelly said.
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