Natavia Lowery was found guilty today of murdering Realtor to the Stars Linda Stein.
Stein’s daughter Mandy, who found her mother’s body, began sobbing when the verdict was read.
The Manhattan Supreme Court jury took just four hours to reach a decision after three weeks of testimony against Lowery, Stein’s young, pretty personal assistant. Lowery was charged with bludgeoning her boss in her Fifth Avenue penthouse.
Lowery also was found guilty of 20 theft and identity theft charges.
Prosecutors had said Lowery was linked to the brutal slaying by motive — some $30,000 in embezzlements — by opportunity as the only person to see Stein that day, and by her admissions to cops, to whom she admitted bludgeoning her boss though not intending to murder her.
Lowery has conceded the thefts. But she insisted the confession was coerced, and that roofers — with whom Stein had argued over noise — had access to Stein’s back stairway and fire escape and were never adequately investigated by cops.
There was no forensic evidence in the case. But Lowery’s movements on the day of the Oct. 30, 2007, murder were well documented by apartment lobby surveillance, and by cell phone, bank and other records.
Among the most incriminating evidence are the images of Lowery leaving the apartment building minutes after the murder — holding Stein’s purse and a red Christie’s shopping bag weighed down by a heavy object, and with her pants clearly turned inside out, to hide the blood splatter, lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon told jurors.
Lowery faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life for murder.