NEWS

January trial in shooting death of young mother in Boonton

@PeggywrightDR

Jury selection is expected to start Jan. 20 in Morristown for the trial of a father of two who is charged with conspiring with his girlfriend to gun down his wife in 2011 on a residential street in Boonton during the Ramadan holiday.

Defense lawyers, murder suspect Kashif Parvaiz, and Morris County assistant prosecutors appeared Thursday before Superior Court Judge Robert J. Gilson in Morristown, where they finalized details and got a jury selection start date of Jan. 20, with testimony projected to start Feb. 2.

Both Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Troiano and co-defense counsel John Latoracca told the judge there have not been any meaningful plea negotiations to resolve charges against Parvaiz that include murder, conspiracy to commit murder, hindering apprehension by lying to police, endangering the welfare of a child, and unlawful possession of a weapon.

The judge told Parvaiz that based upon all the charges, he technically faces life in prison plus 78 years if convicted of all counts.

Parvaiz, now 29, is accused of arranging for his girlfriend, Antionette Stephen, now 30 of Billerica, MA., to shoot his wife, Nazish Noorani, and wound him with gunfire to make it appear they were attacked on the street. On Aug. 16, 2011, Parvaiz and Noorani, 27, were in Boonton visiting relatives for the Ramadan holiday. As they strolled down Cedar Street around 11 p.m., wheeling their 3-year-old son in a carriage, they both were shot. Parvaiz had been living with his family in New York City but had moved alone to Boston, where he purported to be attending Harvard but secretly had a girlfriend, authorities said.

Parvaiz initially told police that a group of thugs approached him and his wife bellowing expletives and calling them "terrorists" but he eventually confessed to arranging for the killing. Stephen has pleaded guilty to participating in the murder and will testify against her ex-lover at his trial.

Gilson, the trial judge, has made multiple pre-trial rulings about evidence the jury can hear, including all the statements made by Parvaiz and his final admissions to the killing. The jury also can hear evidence that Parvaiz solicited voodoo and black magic practitioners to put spells on his wife, tried to obtain poison and disparaged the victim as a bad mother to two girlfriends.

Noorani's brother, Kaleem Noorani, has been a steadfast observer at all the pre-trial hearings and said Thursday he is relieved the trial will soon get under way.

"As long as we get closure it's good. It's been three years," he said.

The judge previously ruled that 25 emails that depict Parvaiz communicating with online sorcerers and black-magic artists can be presented to a jury. The e-mails, discovered through forensic examinations of Parvaiz's computer by Prosecutor's Office detectives, highlight Parvaiz's alleged wide-ranging searches for ways to make his wife disappear, according to authorities.

"I would like to know if there's anything you can do to get rid of Nazish Noorani from mine and my children's lives, such as accidental death or something. Please kindly let me know if there's anything you can do," Parvaiz wrote to one black-magic practitioner, according to an email unearthed by detectives.

Noorani and Parvaiz were living apart at the time of the homicide but were still married, though he had claimed to Antionette Stephen they were divorced under Islamic law. Noorani and the children lived with Parvaiz's parents in Brooklyn; he purported to be a student at Harvard and had moved to Boston, but Harvard officials have said they have no record of him.

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