A woman and her brother have been convicted in the gruesome stabbing death of her husband more than 20 years ago.
Roslyn Pilmar, 61, and her brother, Evan Wald, 45, were found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Friday.
The verdict is a victory for prosecutors, who for more than two decades had not been able to find suspects in the 1996 murder of 40-year-old Howard Pilmar.
Howard Pilmar, a successful entrepreneur who owned an office supply store and a coffee shop, was stabbed 40 times just outside his New York City office.
Roslyn Pilmar (left), 61, and her brother, Evan Wald (right), 45, were found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Friday
The verdict is a victory for prosecutors, who for more than two decades had not been able to find suspects in the 1996 murder of 40-year-old Howard Pilmar
Pilmar and Wald both face between 25 years and life in prison. Their lawyers plan to appeal the verdict, according to The New York Times.
‘For nearly 23 years, Roslyn Pilmar and Evan Wald evaded justice for their gruesome crime and thought they would get away with it,’ the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr, said in a statement.
‘We’re disappointed in the verdict, of course, but the battle is far from over,’ Pilmar’s lawyer said.
Prosecutors say Roslyn Pilmar and Wald plotted the murder of Howard Pilmar in order to inherit a $1.2million life insurance policy.
They allege that Pilmar fell into debt after she was caught stealing $160,000 from the dentist’s office where she worked as a dental hygienist.
She then promised to pay the money back, though she did not tell her husband about it and kept it a secret.
Prosecutors say that in the days leading up to the murder, Pilmar was receiving frequent telephone calls about her debt, including from the IRS, which was demanding $14,000 in unpaid taxes.
The government threatened to shut down one of her husband’s coffee bars, which she was running.
Howard Pilmar was found dead in a pool of blood outside his office on East 33rd Street (above) near the Empire State Building on March 28, 1996
‘She owed the money, and she had to pay it back,’ Elizabeth Lederer, the lead prosecutor in the case, said of Pilmar.
‘She had to find it quickly.’
Prosecutors also said that the Pilmars’ marriage was crumbling, and that Howard Pilmar contacted a divorce lawyer.
Roslyn Pilmar had also complained that her husband was verbally abusive, according to witnesses.
Lederer alleged that Pilmar and her brother ‘planned [the murder] as a trap.’
After Howard Pilmar’s death, Roslyn Pilmar inherited more than $1million on two life insurance policies as well as his businesses, which she sold months later.
Roslyn Pilmar also inherited an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and a summer home.
Prosecutors allege that Roslyn Pilmar (seen in a Manhattan court last December) plotted to kill her husband in order to collect $1.2million on a life insurance policy
Three years after the murder, Pilmar pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the embezzlement case, repaid the money she stole, and was sentenced to probation.
Prosecutors said that the relationship began to grow tense between Wald and his brother-in-law, for whom he worked.
They alleged that Wald began to resent Howard Pilmar for being too critical of him. Wald also was protective of his sister and was aware of her deteriorating marriage.
Lederer said that Wald threatened to kill Howard Pilmar if he ever harmed his sister.
But Wald’s lawyer, Daniel Gotlin, ridiculed the idea that Wald would announce beforehand plans to kill his brother-in-law.
‘If you were planning something, why would you make that statement?’ Gotlin said on Monday.
‘It’s like announcing, I’m going to kill the guy.’
Howard Pilmar was found dead in a pool of blood outside his office on East 33rd Street near the Empire State Building on March 28, 1996.
Authorities said that night before, he was stabbed 40 times in his neck, chest, and back - with a number of stab wounds inflicted after he had drawn his last breath.
Investigators believed that someone he knew was responsible, since there were no signs of forced entry.
Pilmar was killed after the building security guard went home for the night - which detectives believed was a clue that the killer was familiar with his normal routine.
Officers also did not believe it was a burglary since Pilmar still had his wallet with $200 on him at the time he was killed.
Evan Wald, Roslyn Pilmar's brother, is seen above after his arrest in October 2017. Prosecutors say Wald's blood was found at the crime scene and that he had a cut on his left hand
The gruesomeness of the crime scene and the repeated stab wounds also led police to believe that the perpetrators knew the victim and had an emotional motive to kill him.
Authorities said DNA tests proved Wald’s blood was at the crime scene. Police officers interviewed him and noticed a cut on his left hand.
Prosecutors allege the cut was sustained while he stabbed Pilmar.
Wald’s lawyer, Gotlin, said that the cut on his client’s hand did not prove that he was guilty.
‘His hand was cut. So what?’ Gotlin said during closing arguments to the jury on Monday.
‘That doesn’t mean he killed anyone with a knife.’
Gotlin also claimed that the police focus on Wald prevented them from pursuing other leads.
Howard Pilmar was the owner King Office Supply, a family-owned office supply business which had a coffee bar in the front of the store - an innovation at the time.
The business had 50 employees and was generating some $14million a year.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2019/03/09/woman-and-her-brother-are-found-guilty-of-stabbing-her-wealthy-businessman-husband-40-times/
Main photo article A woman and her brother have been convicted in the gruesome stabbing death of her husband more than 20 years ago.
Roslyn Pilmar, 61, and her brother, Evan Wald, 45, were found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Friday.
The verdict is a victory for...
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Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/08/23/10764218-6788323-Roslyn_Pilmar-m-17_1552088493297.jpg
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