Pa Charged Over Punk-rock Pioneer's Murder

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday November 16, 2007

Ian Munro Herald Correspondent in New York

WILD scenes erupted in court after a grand jury indicted the personal assistant of a punk-rock pioneer Linda Stein, 62, with Stein's murder.

Family and supporters of the secretary, Natavia Lowery, 26, on Wednesday surrounded the arresting detectives, shouting and accusing them of coercing a confession to the brutal slaying after hours of interrogation.

Stein, the former co-manager of the Ramones, who reinvented herself as a real estate broker to celebrities such as Madonna, Elton John, Sylvester Stallone and Sting, was found beaten to death in her Fifth Avenue apartment on October 30.

Lowery appeared briefly in the Manhattan Supreme Court, leaving after the indictment was read to cries of "We love you, baby" and "Stay strong" from sobbing relatives and friends.

Support turned to vitriol as about 20 supporters confronted the police who sat stoically through cries of "shame", "son of a bitch" and other obscenities.

Outside the court, emotions boiled over again as family members continued their protest despite calls for calm.

"She can't kill nobody," Lowery's uncle, Russell Lowery, said. "Eighteen hours of interrogation. It was coerced. She did not do it.

"Ms Stein loved her. We still have pictures in our house of Ms Stein. We loved Ms Stein."

Lowery, who was Stein's assistant for four months, reportedly told detectives she bludgeoned her with a wooden T-shaped yoga stick after she made a racially offensive comment and blew marijuana smoke in Lowery's face.

But the videotaped confession has been challenged by Lowery's lawyer, Gilbert Parris, who said he had asked police not to speak to her without him present.

Lowery's aunt, Julia Carrow, told the New York Daily News that police had refused to allow her to contact relatives or her lawyer during the interrogation.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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