The pretty murderess left court smiling.
But last night’s lightning-fast guilty verdict in the “Realtor to the Stars” murder trial brought tears of relief to two other women — Samantha Stein, the slain broker’s eldest daughter, and Mandy Stein, the younger daughter, who two years ago suffered the unfathomable shock of finding her mother’s bludgeoned body.
After a month of testimony, it took jurors just four hours to convict personal assistant Natavia Lowery of embezzling from and then murdering her boss, A-list Realtor and punk-rock pioneer Linda Stein, who managed the Ramones before building a real-estate client list that included Elton John, Madonna and Angelina Jolie.
Mandy Stein, 35, held her hands to her face and shook with sobs in the courtroom when the jury forewoman — a middle-aged professional, like the victim — pronounced Lowery guilty of a murder of such bone-crushing brutality, coroners counted two dozen distinct injuries.
Lowery, meanwhile, kept the same slight smile that she’s displayed throughout the trial.
The verdict came so unexpectedly fast that Samantha Stein, 37, who had left the courthouse, couldn’t return in time, and broke down in hysterical tears, desperate to find and thank the lead prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon.
“Where’s Joan?” she sobbed into her cellphone moments after the verdict.
“I have to find Joan,” she cried. “I just want to hug her! I have to find her and hug her!”
By that time, Lowery had been led from the courtroom, after cheerily mouthing, “You OK?” and “Love you!” to her mother, Lottie.
Outside court, Lowery’s family members angrily complained the trial was unfair, and vowed an appeal.
“Natavia Lowery is innocent,” said stepfather Daniel Walsh. “This is the kind of case that will be back. We are preparing an appeal.”
But one of the jurors, East Village resident Kelly Newton, 27, said, “The prosecution did a great job.”
“We’ll never know what truly provoked this,” she said. “If anyone had a motive, it was the person who was stealing from Linda Stein, the person who was caught in the act.”
Newton said the jury rejected the defense contention that Lowery’s confession was coerced, saying, “Coercion never even entered deliberations.”
The speedy verdict came despite an utter lack of forensic evidence linking Lowery to the crime scene — the blood-spattered living room of Stein’s Fifth Avenue apartment. That is where, prosecutors said, Lowery struck her boss with a blunt object in the head and neck more than 24 times, bashing in her skull.
The brutality of the crime made them convict Lowery of murder rather than manslaughter, according to Newton. “This is not the act of someone who had an intent to injure,” she said. Prosecutors Illuzzi-Orbon and Shanda Strain built a successful case solely on strong circumstantial evidence, including Lowery’s movements on Oct. 30, 2007, the day of the murder, well-documented by apartment lobby surveillance and by phone, bank and other records.
Among the most incriminating evidence was lobby surveillance images of Lowery leaving Stein’s apartment building minutes after the murder — holding Stein’s purse and a red Christie’s shopping bag weighed down by a heavy object, and with her pants clearly turned inside out, to hide the blood splatter.
“The pants were an important piece of evidence” that helped place Lowery at the scene of the crime, Newton said.
Sentencing is set for March 22. Lowery faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison.
Additional reporting by Kirsten Fleming
