"In a stunning end to a sensational whodunit, Linda Stein's assistant confessed she bashed in the Realtor's head with a yoga stick after she blew pot smoke in her face and made a racial crack, police said Friday.
Natavia Lowery calmly cleaned up the Fifth Ave. penthouse after killing the "Realtor to the Stars" in a rage - then filched the dead woman's cell phone and used her ATM card to steal $800, cops said.
Lowery, 26, was charged with second-degree murder in the baffling Oct. 30 slaying of Stein, a punk-rock pioneer who became wealthy by selling Manhattan's best real estate to Madonna, Sting, Steven Spielberg and other celebs.
"We love you!" Lowery's mother yelled yesterday as the petite suspect was hauled off in handcuffs to court.
"Don't say nothing!"
The warning came too late.
Hours earlier, with a videocamera rolling, Lowery confessed to cops, describing how her four months of employment as Stein's go-fer came to a bloody end.
She said on the morning of Oct. 30 she got into an argument with the brash Stein, who co-managed the Ramones before she began selling penthouses to the rich and famous.
Stein, 62, who was battling cancer, started blowing pot smoke in her face and berating her as she worked on the computer, Lowery told cops.
"Get the f---ing e-mails! How can you be so f---ing slow!" Stein supposedly bellowed, a police source said.
Stein, who had private yoga sessions in her $2.5 million pad, was waving a 4-pound strength-building yoga stick at Lowery as she yelled, the assistant told cops.
After Lowery retrieved the e-mails, Stein offered to buy her lunch as a peace offering.
"I've got my own money. I don't need you to buy me lunch," the assistant said indignantly.
"Black people don't have any money," Stein retorted, according to Lowery. "Save your money and I'll buy you lunch."
An enraged Lowery grabbed the yoga stick from Stein and hit her with it a half-dozen times until she was face-down in a pool of blood, police said."
Lets stop here for a moment shall we. Indignant that she was offered lunch, but then stole $800 from the same woman she refused to take lunch money from? One would have imagined she'd have had time to fashion a somewhat better reason for brutally murdering the woman.
"Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly credited detectives with gaining Lowery's trust and said she may have realized they were close to cracking the case.
Lowery's family charged cops targeted her because she's black and said Stein's daughters should be suspects.
"They know who did it," said one male relative. "But whenever there's someone involved with power and influence black people get scapegoated."
"Tell them to check on the two daughters [Mandy Stein and Samantha Stein-Wells]. They have the means and the motive."
Sounds plausible to me. After all, whats a signed, videotaped confession mean anyway? So what she stole the womans ATM card and withdrew money? She's black and therefore innocent.
This WAS a veritable whodunit for a time, a locked door mystery. No signs of a break-in, just a savagely beaten celebrity whose bank card was used soon after the murder. There will be a lot more that comes out, Natavia's story remains full of holes and her self proclaimed motive doesn't pass muster. No reasonably balanced, sane person brutally pummels another to death simply because of a racial slur. Seems like someone needed some money and fast and her employer refused to loan it to her. Doesn't it.
Crying shame that NYC doesn't have the death penalty. Society's only method of both scouring the gene pool and giving other potential murderer's pause.
Take a closer look at the picture, if it hasn't already hit you. Even the veteran detective can't believe she's grinning.
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