Daughter-in-law pleads not guilty in woman's death
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The woman accused of brutally murdering her mother-in-law in January pleaded not guilty Wednesday as relatives and friends of the 80-year-old victim packed the courtroom.
Diana Nadell, the mother of Peggy Nadell's two young grandchildren, is accused of orchestrating Peggy Nadell's killing in a bid for a share of her mother-in-law's more than $4 million estate.
Diana Nadell, who is charged with first-degree murder, appeared before state Supreme Court Justice William Kelly on Wednesday afternoon after her transport from the Rikers Island Correctional Facility to the Rockland County Courthouse delayed her scheduled appearance.
The judge set Nadell's bail at $5 million.
Nadell is being held in the New York City facility to separate her from a co-defendant, Andrea Benson, who is being held in the Rockland County jail after pleading guilty last week to murder and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors against Nadell.
Kelly called the Rikers Island placement "inconvenient" and instructed attorneys to work out a better arrangement that would allow her an "effective defense."
Neither the Westchester nor Putnam county jails were able to house Nadell, prosecutor Richard Kennison Moran said.
About two dozen family and friends of the victim packed the courtroom and later the hallway, wearing buttons with Peggy Nadell's photo, as they have at other recent court appearances of defendants in the case. They declined to comment on the case Wednesday.
Nadell's attorney, Luis Penichet, declined to comment.
"For the integrity of the case, we will remain silent," Penichet said.
A Rockland grand jury recently indicted the 50-year-old Diana Nadell on the first-degree murder charge. The Florida resident is married to Peggy Nadell's son, James Nadell, 52, a psychologist in Cutler Bay, Fla.
Moran, the prosecutor, has said he intends to seek a sentence of life without parole.
Nadell is due back in court July 30.
On Wednesday, prosecutors turned evidence over to the defense that includes two video CDs of Nadell's statements to police on Jan. 26, five audio CDs and four other CDs containing recordings of wiretaps in the case.
Benson admitted in court she expected to get $10,000 for participating in the murder. She told the judge that she and Diana Nadell drove to Valley Cottage, N.Y., from Washington, D.C., where she choked Peggy Nadell with a pocketbook strap before Diana Nadell beat her and stabbed her multiple times.
Peggy Nadell's daughter, Susanne Nadell-Scaccio, found her dead Jan. 25 with a knife in her chest.
Two other women — Eltia Grant, 24, of California, and Tanisha Joyner, 26, of Washington, D.C. — have each pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution, down from a conspiracy to commit murder felony count. They've been released without bail and probably face limited or no time behind bars.
Grant admitted bringing Joyner and Benson into the conspiracy. Joyner admitted telling police Diana Nadell was with her at the time of the killing, and making phone calls from Nadell's cellphone in Washington, D.C.