By Ivan Pereira
Natella Natanova, 39, was charged with tampering with a witness and intimidating a witness after she allegedly confronted Daniel Malakov's brother, Gavriel, at 65th Avenue and 108th Street Monday and said he “would be next” if he didn't keep quiet during the criminal case against her sister, Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova.
As Judge Ira Margulis ordered her to be held on $75,000 bail, Natanova, a stay-at-home mother of six, loudly protested her innocence to no avail.
“No, no, no, I was at my home,” she screamed before the judge ordered her out of the court room.
Natanova posted bail Thursday, according to the city's Department of Corrections.
Daniel Malakov was gunned down Oct. 28 as he was dropping off his daughter Michelle at the Annadale Playground to visit her mother. Borukhova, who like Malakov is a Bukharian Jewish Uzbek immigrant, had lost custody of the girl days earlier.
She was arrested last month and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy after police discovered she made 91 phone calls to her distant uncle Mikhail Mallayev in the weeks leading up to the shooting. Mallayev, who lived in an Atlanta suburb, was arrested in November and charged with murder after police matched his fingerprints to prints found on a makeshift silencer left at the playground by the shooter.
Natanova's attorney, Michael Dowd, criticized the Queens district attorney's office for overinflating the alleged threat, as it was not only reported to have occurred in front of Natanova's apartment building, but it also was reported by Malakov's brother, who has been outspoken in his animosity towards the Borukhova family.
“This man is carrying out a vendetta. [His family has] accused the whole family of murder publicly and in the media,'' he told the judge.
Gavriel Malakov declined to comment about the details of the alleged incident.
