By Howard Koplowitz
The New Jersey man accused of getting his mistress to murder his wife on a tree-lined street convinced an elderly gay man to transfer his share of a Hillcrest apartment building over to him two years before the slaying, property records showed.
Kashif Parvaiz, 26, was handed the deed to the property Dec. 30, 2009, by Manhattan resident Martin Ragusa, 74, according to city Department of Finance records.
It was unclear whether Parvaiz and Ragusa had a sexual relationship.
Ragusa had a 50 percent stake in the property and transferred 60 percent over to Parvaiz, giving the New Jersey man a 30 percent share of the apartment building at 80-25 Parsons Blvd., Finance Department records showed.
The New York Post reported Parvaiz signed papers to sell the property hours before his wife, Nazish Noorani, was allegedly murdered by his mistress, Antionette “Soni” Stephen, 26, as the married couple took a walk in Boonton, N.J., with their 3-year-old child in a stroller.
Noorani was shot near her heart and died instantly while Parvaiz suffered superficial wounds and the child was unharmed.
New Jersey police arrested Parvaiz after he gave inconsistent versions of the shooting, originally saying three men — one black, one white and one of unknown race — called him and his wife “terrorists” before the shooting and then later claiming they were three black men before allegedly confessing to orchestrating the murder, the Post reported.
Parvaiz had told a string of lies to Noorani, including one that he graduated from Columbia University and another that he had to go to Boston to further his studies at Harvard, although registrars at both schools said there were no students with Parvaiz’s name attending the institutions.
Parvaiz met Stephen while he was living in Boston, according to the Post, and oddly introduced her to Noorani as his fiancee, which he said he did because it got him a discount at the Best Buy store in Boston where Stephen worked.
In an interview with the Post Monday, Ragusa appeared to not realize he had been duped by Parvaiz.
“He graduated summa cum laude from Columbia [University],” Ragusa told the paper. “They wanted him in Harvard …. And he wanted that. Because he wanted to get that [architecture] degree to build anywhere he wanted to build.”
Reach reporter Howard Koplowitz by e-mail at hkoplowitz@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4573.
