Murder victim's siblings detail her marriage to slay suspect

Two siblings of a woman gunned down in Boonton in 2011 told a jury Thursday that their brother-in-law -- accused killer Kashif Parvaiz -- posted a romantic photograph of himself with another woman to his Facebook page and didn't want his wife to live with him when he moved to Boston.

Kaleem Noorani of Parsippany and Lubna Choudhry of Boonton, the brother and sister, respectively, of slay victim Nazish Noorani, were called Thursday to testify at Parvaiz' murder trial about some of their knowledge of the couple's marital relationship and their recollections of the Aug. 16, 2011 night the mother of two was shot to death with three bullets on Cedar Street in Boonton.

Parvaiz, 29, is charged with plotting the killing of his spouse of 6 years with his lover, Antionette Stephen, now 30, of Billerica, Mass. At the time, Parvaiz was living in Boston, where he purported to be a Harvard architectural student, and his wife and their two young sons were living in Brooklyn with Parvaiz's parents.

The couple was in Boonton on Aug. 16, 2011 to break the fast of Ramadan with relatives. As they wheeled one son in a stroller down Cedar Street around 11:15 p.m., both adults were shot. Parvaiz survived.

After the shooting, Kaleem Noorani had given police damning information about his brother-in-law, including statements that his sister, 27, feared Parvaiz. However, he was precluded from revealing the information at trial but Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Troiano elicited multiple other statements from the brother.

Kaleem Noorani said his sister had "a love marriage" to Parvaiz instead of a Muslim arranged marriage. He said Parvaiz in 2011 showed him a letter he purportedly received from Harvard and said he was moving there to study. Parvaiz moved, leaving his wife and children with his parents in Brooklyn, and his sister was anguished, Kaleem Noorani said.

"She just said 'I want to live with my husband,'" Noorani testified. "But he didn't want her to come to Boston." He said his sister visited Parvaiz once in Boston but Parvaiz was gone most of the time on a business trip to Virginia.

"She traveled there once and he left for Virginia for some work -- that's what he told her. She said 'I'm alone and I'm scared,'" Kaleem Noorani testified.

Troiano, the assistant prosecutor, had told jurors in his opening statement that he would show that Parvaiz had multiple girlfriends and relationships ongoing while he was married to a woman he hated.

Both Kaleem Noorani and his sister Lubna Choudhry testified that Nazish Noorani was upset and angry when she learned there was a photograph of Parvaiz and another woman posted on his Facebook page in May 2011, just two months before the killing.

"He posted a picture like she was his girlfriend or his wife. Nazish was mad (about) that picture," Kaleem Noorani testified.

Testifying with the aid of an Urdu interpreter, Lubna Choudhry said her sister and her family spent the night of Aug. 15, 2011 at her father's home in Boonton and then broke the Ramadan fast at her nearby home on Aug. 16, 2011. Choudhry said that Parvaiz spent much of the day talking on his cell phone and seeking private areas for those phone conversations.

Troiano had said detectives discovered multiple text messages exchanged on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16, 2011 between Parvaiz and Antionette Stephen, with the content pointing to a conspiracy to kill Nazish Noorani. Stephen has pleaded guilty to the murder, admitting that she followed a plan to kill Nazish and wound Parvaiz, and has agreed to testify against her lover for the prosecution.

Both Kaleem Noorani and Lubna Choudhry became aware within moments of the shooting that their sister was a victim. Parvaiz and his wife, walking one of their sons in a stroller, left Choudhry's house around 11 p.m. and were walking the short distance to Noorani's father's house on Church Street when they were shot.

Kaleem Noorani, who lived with his father on Church Street at the time, said his brother raced into his bedroom in a panic and told him something had happened. He said he rushed outside, ran to Cedar Street and was met by the sound of Parvaiz yelling.

"He was just screaming my name. He was saying 'Oh my wife, oh my wife,'" Kaleem Noorani said. He said he asked Parvaiz what happened and his brother-in-law stated: "There were three men and they ran this way" (toward Williams Street).

The jury will hear nearly 10 hours of statements made by Parvaiz to police, one of which is a story that three men attacked him and his wife with guns and yelled (expletive) "terrorists!"

Choudhry was composed throughout her testimony but broke down and wept when she started to describe arriving at the scene of the shooting. Within moments of Parvaiz and Noorani leaving her house, Choudhry said, she heard what sounded like fireworks but quickly learned the noise was gunshots.

"I went to Cedar Street. Naz was on the ground," Choudhry said and then covered her face. When she recovered, she told the jury she tried to attend to her nephew, a toddler who was unhurt and still in his stroller.

"He said 'I want milk,'" Choudhry said. She said her father also arrived at the scene but she tried to protect him from grief by telling him Nazish was "hurt a little" and he should return home.

Defense lawyers John J. Bruno Jr. and John Latoracca did not cross-examine either sibling on their testimony.

The trial is slated to continue Monday before Superior Court Judge Robert Gilson in Morristown.

Staff Writer Peggy Wright: 973-267-1142; pwright@njpressmedia.com