Linda Stein: The Blood Spot On The Sink

By Janine Cheviot

There may be another twist in the murder case of Linda Stein, the "realtor to the stars" who was killed in her Fifth Avenue apartment last October, depending on which lawyer you ask.

A medical examiner's report released last week states that DNA from a person referred to as "Male A" was found mixed with Stein's blood in a bathroom sink in her apartment. But the suspect being held for the crime, Natavia Lowery, 26, who was Stein's assistant, is female. Lowery's attorney, Ronald Kuby, said, "The DNA shows the killer is almost certainly a man." Kuby suggested that Male A had killed Stein and then tried to scrub his hands clean in her bathroom sink, but left a speck of blood from which the DNA in question was lifted. But according to the Manhattan district attorney's office, "There's nothing to suggest the blood came from the murder," and the DNA only proves that a man may have touched Stein's sink during the time she lived in the apartment. Kuby accused the DA's office of downplaying the importance of Male A's DNA.

Despite the new evidence, Lowery, who is five months pregnant, was denied bail and will remain at Riker's Island, where she has been held since her arrest in November - much to the disappointment of her 100 supporters wearing "Justice for Natavia" t-shirts who filled the courtroom.

Lowery, a Brooklyn native, gave a videotaped confession last November, stating that she bludgeoned her boss with a heavy bar, referred to in a police report as a "yoga stick," after Stein yelled racial slurs and blew marijuana smoke in her face. Prosecutors said that Lowery murdered Stein at 12:45 p.m. and surveillance cameras show her leaving the apartment building about a half hour later. It was also discovered that Lowery, who had prior to the murder been arrested on charges of identity theft and petty larceny, had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from Stein during the four months she worked for her. And just days after the murder, it was learned that Lowery used Stein's credit cards to purchase plane tickets and other items.

But then a series of inconsistencies followed Lowery's arrest. First, Lowery retracted her confession, claiming the police in the interrogation room coerced it. Then, medical examiners said that toxicology reports conducted as part of Stein's autopsy showed that she had not smoked marijuana prior to her death, as stated in Lowery's confession. In the same week Kuby claimed that the DA's office had records of a telephone conversation between Stein and her daughter Samantha at 2 p.m. on the day of her murder, which is 45 minutes after Lowery is shown on surveillance cameras leaving the building. He also claimed that when Stein's body was found at 10:30 p.m., her body temperature was only 12.6 degrees lower than a living person, indicating that she was not murdered when Lowery was there.

But while the defense attorneys are calling the discovery of Male A's DNA a stunning revelation, the district attorneys say it is "a pedestrian understanding of the medical examiner's process." Prosecutors maintain that Lowery murdered Stein, even though no trace of Stein's blood was ever found on her clothing. Lowery's next court hearing is scheduled for April 24.

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