Murder plot suspects now in N.J. jail
A Billerica woman suspected of conspiring with an East Boston man to kill his wife in New Jersey has been transferred to a jail there, authorities said
Antionette Stephen, 26, of Billerica, and Kashif Parvaiz, 26, of East Boston, face murder charges in the death of Parvaiz’s wife, Nazish Noorani.
Authorities have charged that Stephen and Parvaiz conspired to shoot Noorani to death while wounding him as part of a cover story. Parvaiz initially told police that a white man, a black man, and a third whose race was unknown shouted “terrorists’’ at them before opening fire. He changed the story to the assailants being three black men before confessing to police that he and Stephen were behind the assault, authorities said.
Noorani, 27, was shot to death last Tuesday while she walked with Parvaiz while pushing their 2-year-old son’s stroller outside her sister’s Boonton, N.J., family home. The child was not hurt.
Parvaiz was also transferred to the Morris County Correctional Facility last night, said Captain Jeffrey S. Paul of the Morris County prosecutor’s office.
Stephen is being held on $5 million bail; Parvaiz on $1 million bail.
The shooting is reminiscent of the Charles Stuart case, which roiled Boston in the late 1980s. Stuart shot his pregnant wife, Carol, to death after they left childbirth classes in October 1989. He shot himself as part of his cover story, and blamed the shootings on a black gunman, setting off police searches and inflaming racial tensions.
His story fell apart, and as authorities began to close in, he killed himself by jumping off the Tobin Bridge three months after the shooting.
John M. Guilfoil can be reached at jguilfoil@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @globe_guilfoil. 