Alejandro Garcia, Beating Deaths, New York 2009

Alejandro Garcia Sentenced to 17 Years and Six Months for Beating Deaths of Ben and Bernice Novack

New York - Alejandro Garcia, 36, was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison by U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Karas in White Plains federal court for his role in the beating deaths of Ben and Bernice Novack.

According to the trial evidence and other information in the public record, Ben and Bernice Novack were members of the family that built the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Ben Novack, who was 52 at the time of his death, owned Novack Enterprises, Inc., which did business as Convention Concepts Unlimited, a company that organized and oversaw conventions held by various businesses. Bernice Novack, who was 86 at the time of her death, was the secretary of Novack Enterprises, Inc.

On April 4, 2009, Garcia surprised Bernice Novack as she started to get out of her car in the garage of her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and hit her in the head and mouth with a monkey wrench. She died of her wounds shortly thereafter.

In July 2009, Veliz arranged for Garcia and another man, Joel Gonzalez, to travel from Florida to the Rye Town Hilton in Rye Brook, New York, where Ben Novack was staying with his wife while his company oversaw a convention at the hotel. Early on the morning of July 12, 2009, Narcisa Veliz Novack let the two men into the Novacks’ room, where Garcia and Gonzalez then attacked her husband in his bed and on the floor, striking him with dumbbells and using a box-cutter to cut his eyes.

Garcia, a cooperating witness who testified for the Government in the June 2012 trial of Narcisa Veliz Novack and Cristobal Veliz, was hired by Veliz as a hit man in both homicides. Both Novack and Veliz were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Karas ordered Garcia to forfeit $25,500, the amount of money he was paid for his role in both homicides.

Mr. Bharara thanked Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore and the prosecutors and investigators from her office for their cooperative work in this investigation and prosecution. He also praised the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Rye Brook Police Department, the Westchester County Department of Public Safety, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/alejandro-garcia-sentenced-white-plains-federal-court-17-years-and-six-months-prison