Contrite killer of Nazish Noorani in Boonton gets 30 years

Saying she knows her soul is "condemned to hell," a Massachusetts woman who agreed with her lover to shoot his wife to death on a Boonton street in 2011 was sentenced Friday to a full 30 years in prison.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, convicted killer Antionette Stephen faced the brother and sister of victim Nazish Noorani, 27, in Superior Court and said she heard Noorani cry out "Allah," as bullets pierced her body.

"I know my soul is condemned to hell," Stephen, 30, said. "I know she (Noorani) is in heaven. I have to believe she is in heaven."

Crumpling a prepared statement she had written, Stephen gave a spontaneous account of how she was led by Noorani's husband, Kashif Parvaiz, to believe his wife was an indifferent mother who refused to get blood transfusions for her 5-year-old boy to treat his sickle cell anemia.

Stephen said she learned Parvaiz lied about all aspects of his life -- including an ill child -- after she fulfilled a pact with him to shoot his wife on Cedar Street on Aug. 16, 2011, and wound him. She begged Noorani's sister, Lubna Choudhry, and brother Kaleem Noorani for forgiveness but she also went on to cast herself as a naive victim of Parvaiz and said she never wants to see another woman be abused by a partner.

"If you think I don't know your pain or that I don't care, you're wrong. All the pain, loss, grief, anger, I know it. I feel it every day," she said. "Now my hands are red with innocent blood and I can't take that back."

Born in India, Stephen was in the United States legally with a green card and was living with her parents in Billerica, Mass. when she met Parvaiz at the Boston Architectural College in January 2010. She said he persuaded her over time that he was a loving father to his two boys, 5 and 2, and needed to save them from their mother. He also pretended that his youngest boy was not biologically his son but the child of a relationship between Noorani and another man.

"This should never have happened," Stephen said. "I'm a simple, ordinary girl and there are many women like me, sheltered, book smart but not street smart, who are taught never to fight back."

Stephen was the chief witness against Parvaiz during his murder trial in Morris County in February. He was convicted of murder, conspiracy, child endangerment, hindering apprehension and other offenses and was sentenced on May 21 to life in prison. Parvaiz never apologized or gave a statement at sentencing and still maintains his innocence.

Stephen in May 2013 agreed to cooperate with the state and pleaded guilty to murder, conspiracy, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose and unlawful possession of a weapon. She was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Robert Gilson on Friday to 30 years in prison, with 30 years to be served before parole consideration -- all in accord with her plea agreement.

Kaleem Noorani, the victim's brother, heard Stephen's apologies but said he couldn't accept them. He called her "despicable, evil and inhuman" and said she left two children without a doting mother.

"Antionette, you murdered my best friend. How dare you apologize?" Kaleem Noorani said. "You are evil and have no heart and soul. How could you, a woman, kill another woman? Nothing will ever undo your evil."

Stephen testified before the Morris County jury that she and Parvaiz developed a plot under which she would fatally shoot Noorani and wound Parvaiz to make the attack appear to be a random robbery. However, when police arrived, Parvaiz, wounded by four non-life-threatening gunshots, faked that three gunmen assailed him and his wife with the words: "(Expletive) terrorists!"

Stephen shot the couple as they walked down Cedar Street in Boonton at 11:15 p.m. on Aug. 16, 2011. They were wheeling their 2-year-old boy in a stroller. The child was not struck by gunfire.

The conspiracy hinged on a visit that Parvaiz, Noorani and their two sons made to Boonton to break the fast of the Ramadan religious holiday with Noorani's family. Noorani and the boys were living with Parvaiz's parents in Brooklyn, N.Y. while Parvaiz, pretending to be a Harvard University student, was living in Boston and juggling three girlfriends, including Stephen.

Defense lawyer Dolores Mann told the judge that "a malignant, narcisstic" man -- Parvaiz -- entered Stephen's life when they met at Boston Architectural College. They became part of a study group and their friendship turned romantic about eight months later. Mann said that Parvaiz lied constantly to Stephen while professing to love her and Stephen was convinced that Parvaiz was kind, generous, educated and devoted to his sons.

According to Mann, Parvaiz told Stephen he was separated and forced to pay child support and bring his son for sickle cell anemia treatments. When Stephen learned he had another girlfriend, Parvaiz told her he was being blackmailed and had to stay in the relationship. He claimed he was molested as a child and one day was at a jewelry store owned by the other girlfriend's father, saw his childhood molester and stabbed him, Mann said.

Parvaiz started hitting Stephen during frustrated rages and claimed that drug dealers he turned in to police had sent him a severed animal leg as a threat, Mann said. Stephen ultimately was persuaded to kill Noorani because she believed the child would die from lack of proper medical care if he stayed with Noorani.

"She felt so sorry for him. Little did she know she was being psychologically abused at the time. He turned his wife into an utter caricature of a monster," Mann said.

"She thought she was saving the life of a child," Mann said.

Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Troiano said he believes that Stephen was manipulated by lies routinely spewed by Parvaiz but the murder is still "inexcusable" and a form of vigilantism. Troiano said facets of the case remain deeply disturbing, including surveillance images from a Massachusetts gun range in which Parvaiz and Stephen are seen laughing and teasing each other.

"The smirk on her face...the ease and the laughter. There was satisfaction in what was going to take place," Troiano said.

He noted also more than a hundred text exchanges between the pair in the four days before the killing in which they also joked about the plot. While Parvaiz and his family were visiting in Boonton, Stephen traveled from Massachusetts, spied on them and grew familiar with the territory.

"Whether or not you are sold a bill of goods about Harvard, a sick child...ultimately what she did is inexcusable and indefensible," Troiano said.

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