Novack, brother given life sentences

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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A Florida woman and her brother were sentenced to life in prison Monday for arranging the deaths of her husband and mother-in-law.

Narcy Novack and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, were convicted earlier this year of arranging to have the pair killed partly to get an inheritance from her husband, Ben Novack Jr., who was bludgeoned to death in a hotel room in Rye, N.Y., on July 12, 2009, The Journal News of White Plains, N.Y., said. Three months earlier, Narcy Novack and Veliz arranged to have Bernice Novack, Ben's mother, killed at her Fort Lauderdale, Fla., home so she wouldn't share in the inheritance when her son was dead, officials said..

Lawyers for the pair each had argued their client deserved less than the maximum life imprisonment, Veliz saying through in interpreter it was Novack's daughter who arranged the killings, not him. Novack refused to be in the courtroom during the sentencing -- as she did when the jury returned her guilty verdict.

Ben Novack Jr. is the son of the iconic Miami Beach Fontainebleau hotel founder. He went on to start his own company running conferences and conventions. He was attending one such event in upstate New York when he was killed, The Journal News said.

Four others have pleaded guilty and await sentencing, the paper said.