The Prince of Paradise

by John Glatt

  On the way to Fort Lauderdale, Veliz received a phone call from Narcy, giving the name and address of the restaurant where she and Ben would be. She told Veliz to look out for her husband’s beige Cadillac Escalade SUV, in the parking lot.

  Veliz in turn told his sister what Garcia and Gonzalez would be wearing, so she would be able to identify them.

  “He told us that Señor Novack was going to be at the restaurant sitting with his sister,” said Garcia. “When we came in she was going to do a signal so we could recognize [him].”

  When they reached the diner in Fort Lauderdale, they soon found the Escalade in the parking lot. Veliz told the men to go into the restaurant.

  The two men walked in and sat at the bar, ordering a glass of water. Looking over to their left, they easily recognized the bearded Ben Novack Jr., who was at a table with Narcy and another woman.

  “I said to Joel, ‘That looks like the man we’re after,’” Garcia recalled. “At that moment, [Narcy] started to stroke Señor Novack’s hair, because that was the signal.”

  Because Veliz had told them to get as close to their target as possible, Garcia instructed Gonzalez to walk past Novack’s table on their way to the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, they came out of the bathroom and went back to the bar, before leaving the diner.

  Cristobal Veliz picked them up outside, and the three headed back to Miami. A few minutes later, Narcy called Veliz’s cell phone. She complained that Gonzalez’s bald head was “intimidating” and “scary,” saying he would attract too much attention at the hotel.

  Veliz told her not to be nervous, as Joel Gonzalez would be perfect for the job.

  * * *

  Soon afterward, Alejandro Garcia told Joel Gonzalez that Jefe now wanted him to play a bigger part in the attack.

  “He wanted me to participate,” said Gonzalez. “He would give me an extra five hundred dollars [in addition] to the three thousand I was promised.”

  Then Garcia gave him more details about the big job.

  “Alex told me … we were going to attack Mr. Novack, because his wife wanted to take control of the business,” said Gonzalez. “Novack was to be left disabled … and he showed me step by step how the assault would take place.”

  Then Gonzalez asked what would happen if he said no.

  “He said it would be in my best interests,” said Gonzalez. “That these were powerful people with money and they can make us disappear.”

  * * *

  In late June, Ben and Narcy Novack went out to dinner with Ben’s childhood friend Kelsey Grammer and his wife, Camille. They arranged to meet up in three weeks’ time at Kelsey’s rental in the Hamptons, when the Novacks came north for the Amway conference.

  Kelsey Grammer would later tell investigators that Narcy was acting very strangely that evening, and that something was wrong.

  * * *

  On June 26, Ben Novack Jr. hired an attorney to file for divorce. Then, according to Joe Gandy, his attorney abruptly dropped the case after receiving threats.

  Gandy said, “The lawyer called up Ben and said, ‘I’m dropping the case … because I’ve been threatened.”

  * * *

  In the final week of June, Cristobal Veliz was back in Miami finalizing arrangements for the imminent attack on Ben Novack Jr. With just over two weeks to go before the Amway convention in Rye Brook, New York, Veliz collected Alejandro Garcia and Joel Gonzalez at the car wash and took them to a nearby Nicaraguan restaurant for a briefing.

  The Veliz siblings had now decided to buy a used vehicle for the attack, distancing themselves even further from it.

  “Mr. Veliz asked us a lot about finding a car,” Gonzalez recalled. “He said he needed a car for the trip to New York.”

  After inspecting several in Miami that were not up to scratch, Veliz told his hit men that they would be driving to Brooklyn, New York. He said he was buying an old Ford Thunderbird from his son-in-law, Denis Ramirez, and then towing it back to Miami for repairs.

  On Wednesday July 1, the three men left Miami in Cristobal Veliz’s Nissan Pathfinder, stopping off for the night in Jacksonville, Florida. Cristobal stayed with his daughter Karen Veliz, while putting up Garcia and Gonzalez at a Motel 6.

  The next morning he met them in the parking lot, and a few minutes later Denis Ramirez arrived with Veliz’s daughter Karen.

  Ramirez then got into the back of the Pathfinder and, with Gonzalez doing the driving, the four men set off for New York, stopping only for food and bathroom breaks.

  * * *

  It was late afternoon when the green Pathfinder drew up outside 1499 Jefferson Avenue, where Francisco Picado was waiting. Ramirez then took his father-in-law to a fenced-in parking lot to the right of the brownstone, where his 1990 gray two-door Thunderbird with a broken windshield was parked. After starting the engine, Veliz agreed to pay Ramirez $800 later, saying he would have to get the car fixed in Miami.

  Then, after buying everyone dinner at a Dominican restaurant in Brooklyn, Veliz drove Garcia and Gonzalez to the Crossbay Motor Inn at 137-27 Crossbay Boulevard in Ozone Park, Queens, where they would be spending the night. He handed Gonzalez $110 in cash to pay for the room, before leaving to stay with Laura Law.

  At 9:08 P.M. Gonzalez officially registered, using his driver’s license as identification. It was the first time in New York for both men, and they went out that night to a club, drinking and doing drugs. They also bought matching pairs of knockoff Valentino sunglasses from a bargain store.

  * * *

  At around 9:00 the next morning, Cristobal Veliz collected Alejandro Garcia from the hotel, leaving Joel Gonzalez in the room. The two men then drove to a PepBoys auto parts store in Metropolitan Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens, to buy towing lights and cables to haul the T-bird back to Miami.

  Veliz told Garcia that there had been a change in plan, and instead of cutting off Ben Novack’s testicles, Garcia would be slashing his eyes instead. Veliz told Garcia not to tell Gonzalez this, in case it scared him off.

  After selecting magnetic tow lights and quick links for the towing operation, Veliz picked up a $9.99 Sheffield Lockback Utility Knife, asking Garcia if it would be suitable for blinding Ben Novack. Garcia said he thought it would.

  “So he bought it,” said Garcia, “and as he was paying, I took it out of the box and put it in my pocket.”

  They then drove back to the Crossbay Motor Inn and collected Gonzalez at 10:58 A.M. On the way to pick up the Thunderbird, Veliz stopped off at a True Value Hardware store, handing Garcia enough cash to buy a backpack for the tools they needed for the attack on Ben Novack.

  Back at 1499 Jefferson Avenue, Veliz tried to hook up the towing lights and cables from the Pathfinder to the Thunderbird, but the plugs didn’t fit. So he returned to the PepBoys to exchange them, before getting the lights working.

  It was early afternoon when Veliz, Garcia, and Gonzalez set out in the Pathfinder on the 1,350-mile journey to Miami, towing the Thunderbird behind them.

  * * *

  On the July Fourth weekend, while her brother was finalizing preparations to kill her husband, Narcy helped Ben Jr. run a Hispanic Amway family convention in Fort Lauderdale. It was being held at the Broward Convention Center, where Mark Gatley was now general manager. He had not seen Ben since the late 1990s, and it was his first meeting with Narcy, who struck him as highly competent.

  “She held herself up professionally and dressed well,” Gatley said, “as a loving wife and business partner.”

  At Friday’s preconvention meeting, Ben Novack Jr. attacked the Broward Convention Center for incompetence. This set the tone for the rest of the convention.

  “All of us were a little embarrassed,” said Gatley, “and he picked up on that. He did a number on the G.M. of the hotel there, saying the restaurant was less than average, and needed to be fixed. And he picked on our convention and visitors’ bureau a little bit, for things that [we] should or shouldn’t be.”

  After the meeting, Gatle
y and Narcy struck up a conversation. Gatley remembered: “And she said to me, ‘You know, Ben has so many enemies. He has so many people that don’t like him.’” She then asked if Gatley had observed her husband’s behavior at the meeting, and Gatley agreed that it had been bad. “And she said, ‘Yeah, but I’m here,’” said Gatley. “‘I have to protect him. I’m the one that has to look out for Ben. Somebody has to.’ I said, ‘Great.’”

  The next morning, at registration, Ben Novack Jr. was in a better mood and was even chatty. As Narcy helped sign in the convention guests, the Convention Concepts Unlimited employees Matt Briggs and May Abad, and three freelancers, worked behind the scenes.

  Ben Novack Jr. sat to one side of the registration desk with Gatley tinkering on his laptop computer. Suddenly, he became introspective, and began discussing his father and his childhood at the Fontainebleau.

  “Ben and I were having these conversations about his father’s hotel,” said Gatley. “And he was Googling the Fontainebleau on his computer while I was sitting [there]. He told me that he and Steve Wynn of Las Vegas were very good friends. He said Steve Wynn grew up in his dad’s hotel, and learned the hotel business there. And that one of his first hotels was a tribute to the Fontainebleau.”

  Novack also spoke about his upcoming plans to relocate to Seattle, Washington, and start taking things easier.

  “Ben told me [he and Narcy] were buying properties there,” said Gatley. “He said, ‘We’ve already been up there and looked at places. I know I can dock my boat there.’”

  Then Narcy came over, telling Ben to apologize to everyone he’d upset at yesterday’s meeting, and suggesting they take those people out to lunch. She said she always had to look out for Ben, as he caused trouble.

  “Ben just shrugged it off,” said Gatley. “He didn’t pay any attention.”

  * * *

  On Sunday morning, after the conference ended, Ben Novack Jr. met with Mark Gatley to settle his bills. As usual he quibbled, complaining that things at the conference center had not been up to snuff, but then reluctantly paid with his black American Express Card.

  As they said good-bye, Gatley said he was looking forward to hosting Novack’s upcoming five-thousand-person Amway convention in September, as had been agreed. Then the convention planner dropped a bomb, saying that this was not a done deal by any means.

  Novack explained that he had a long-standing beef with the Broward County Sheriff’s Department for not allowing him to park outside one of the terminals at Fort Lauderdale Airport.

  “Those were things that he would not just let go,” said Gatley. “He was getting all red-faced about it.”

  Novack explained he had already e-mailed the sheriff, county administrator, and other local notables, inviting them to a meeting on Wednesday. They had not replied, so he now wanted Gatley to use his influence to make them attend. Becoming angry, he threatened to pull the upcoming convention, which the city badly needed financially, if they dared snub him.

  Gatley promised to do his best to make the Wednesday meeting happen. Then, as they were leaving, Narcy called him over.

  “Ben has so many enemies,” she whispered in his ear.

  * * *

  Late that night, Ben Novack Jr. called Mark Gatley at home, checking on his progress.

  “He called me several times,” said Gatley. “‘Is that meeting going to happen? What do you think?’ I said, ‘I’m pretty sure it will, Ben. They know about your September convention here, and everybody wants to make sure that happens.’”

  * * *

  A few hours earlier, Cristobal Veliz and his two hit men towed the broken Thunderbird into Miami. As Jefe had nowhere to stay, Garcia offered to have him and Gonzalez sleep in the small room he rented in a trailer, which belonged to an elderly lady named Gladys Cuenca.

  “They came over and asked if they could stay for a few days,” Cuenca later testified. “I said yes.”

  On Monday morning, Cristobal Veliz towed the Thunderbird to a mechanic in Miami, leaving it to be repaired. On his return to the trailer, he asked Garcia to persuade Gladys Cuenca to register the car in her name with the Florida department of Highway Safety, so it could never be traced back to him.

  “I said Cristobal was going to give it to me as a gift and both of us could use it,” Garcia explained. “I never told Gladys what we really needed it for, and she agreed because she didn’t have a car.”

  Later that day, Veliz drove his two hired hands to a Kmart to buy equipment for the Ben Novack Jr. job.

  “We were looking for something to beat the man,” Garcia later testified, “and we found some handheld dumbbells.”

  In the sports department, Garcia picked out for himself a pair of blue dumbbells weighing about five pounds, and a pink pair weighing eight pounds for Gonzalez.

  “We were also looking for [duct] tape to tie up Señor Novack,” said Garcia. “That was Cristobal’s idea. It was two inches thick with fibers in it and pretty strong.”

  Veliz also purchased two pairs of baseball gloves, so as not to leave fingerprints behind at the attack, and a showerhead and some bathtub mats, as a thank-you present for Gladys Cuenca.

  Jefe paid for everything with his credit card.

  * * *

  On Wednesday afternoon, July 8, Ben Novack Jr. got his meeting with the Broward County sheriff and local government officials. It began with the angry convention planner standing up and railing against the Sheriff’s Office for incompetence.

  “He did his usual thing,” said Mark Gatley, who also attended the meeting. “It didn’t really have much to do with our meeting.”

  Novack castigated the sheriff for the incident several years earlier when police had ordered him not to park outside a terminal, as it breached security.

  “It was a stormy meeting,” said Gatley. “He just wanted to review how incompetent the Sheriff’s Office was.”

  Novack also complained that security was far too strict, with too many police checkpoints at the airport and the convention center.

  “He is a very aggressive person,” said Nikki Grossman, the president of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau, who was also at the meeting. “He wanted to make everyone aware of his issues.”

  Finally, at the end of his long tirade, Novack issued an ultimatum. He threatened to pull the plug on the lucrative September convention if he did not get a letter promising to remedy the situation by the time he returned from New York.

  * * *

  After the meeting, Ben and Narcy Novack took their yacht White Lightning out on the water for the first time since it had broken down a year earlier. Since then, it had been in a boatyard having a $2 million refitting.

  They had invited Prince Mongo to accompany them on the yacht’s maiden voyage, but he was too busy campaigning to become the mayor of Memphis.

  “He said, ‘Come on. Fly down and ride on the boat with me,’” said Mongo. “I couldn’t just pick up and ride on the boat.”

  Trouble soon struck as they sailed down the Intercoastal Waterway, when a water hose came loose.

  “So they had to turn around,” said Mongo, “and limp back to the dock and back to the boatyard.”

  * * *

  Late that night, Ben Novack Jr. called Mark Gatley at home, asking for his thoughts on the meeting.

  “We chatted for about half an hour,” recalled Gatley. “He went on about, ‘Do you think they paid attention? Are they going to take care of this? You know if they don’t, I’m not coming back.’”

  Gatley assured him that the Broward County Sheriff’s Office would take care of things for his September convention, and do a good job.

  “He would go off on these rants that were unrelated,” said Gatley. “I got the sense that he was really looking for someone to talk to, as much as anything else.”

  Novack suddenly became emotional, complaining that nobody really listened to him or cared about his business.

  “He was just rambling on,” explained
Gatley. “I mean some of the stuff was so left field. I got off the phone that night thinking, ‘This is just a lonely person who wants to talk to somebody.’”

  * * *

  A few hours earlier, Cristobal Veliz had collected the Ford Thunderbird from the mechanic and driven it back to the Blue Belle Trailer Park. He then instructed Garcia and Gonzalez to pack their best clothes for “the big date,” as he was now calling the attack on Ben Novack Jr.

  “That’s when Mr. Garcia said we are going to do something shady,” Gonzalez would later testify. “That we were going to commit a crime. Mr. Veliz told me that I knew as much as I needed to know.”

  Veliz then ordered Gonzalez to drive Garcia back to New York in the Thunderbird, while he went separately in his Pathfinder.

  But the two hit men were barely out of the greater Miami area when the Thunderbird overheated and they had to pull into a gas station.

  “Mr. Veliz appeared five minutes later,” said Gonzalez. “He opened the hood of the car and tried to figure it out, and bought cooling fluid to try and cool it down.”

  When the Thunderbird refused to start, a furious Veliz reattached the towing lines to his Pathfinder to haul the car back to New York.

  He then called Denis Ramirez from the road, complaining that his car had broken down again. Ramirez insisted on being paid the agreed-upon $800 anyway, “but he said he was only paying me $300, because the car was no good.”

  * * *

  Early Thursday morning, Cristobal Veliz pulled off the I-95 in Jessop, Maryland, and stopped off at a drive-through Bank of America ATM to withdraw $200. Wearing a baggy T-shirt and a baseball cap, he was photographed at 6:18 A.M. by a CCTV camera making the withdrawal.

  Three minutes later, his green Nissan Pathfinder was captured by the surveillance camera leaving the bank towing the gray Thunderbird back to New York.

  THIRTY-SEVEN

  “PREPARING FOR THE BIG DATE!”

  At around noon on Thursday, July 9, Ben and Narcy Novack flew into JFK Airport from Fort Lauderdale, to prepare for that weekend’s Amway convention at the Rye Town Hilton. Before leaving, a jubilant Ben Novack Jr. had e-mailed Charlie Seraydar the news that the Miami Beach Police Department had finally agreed to put a plaque with his name on it on the wall of police headquarters, recognizing his thirty-one years of volunteer service.