N.Y. murder suspect charged in plot to kill witnesses

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The Florida woman already charged with murdering her 80-year-old mother-in-law in New York has been indicted on charges she plotted from jail to kill key witnesses against her.

Diana Nadell, 50, allegedly solicited a fellow inmate to arrange the murder of two witnesses who are prepared to testify against her in Peggy Nadell's slaying.

The targets were not named by investigators.

Three other women have already pleaded guilty to felony charges in the case, with one of them saying she participated directly in the killing. Andrea Benson, 25, of Washington, D.C., is being held in the Rockland County, N.Y., jail after pleading guilty to murder; the other two alleged co-conspirators are free pending sentencing.

"These are disturbing allegations in an already shocking case," Rockland County District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said in a statement.

Peggy Nadell, the grandmother of Diana Nadell's two sons, was stabbed multiple times and brutally beaten inside her Clarkstown, N.Y., house in January.

Clarkstown police and prosecutors say Diana Nadell killed her mother-in-law to get her hands on her husband's share of Peggy Nadell's more than $3 million estate.

Peggy Nadell's children — Susanne Nadell-Scaccio of Airmont, N.Y., and James Nadell, 52, a Florida neuropsychologist — share the estate. James Nadell is not a suspect and has not responded to requests for comment.

Diana Nadell is being held in the Orange County, N.Y., jail after being transferred, at her lawyer's request, from Riker's Island in Queens. She has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder, which carries a life sentence without parole.

She has been kept separate from Benson, who recounted in court how she choked Peggy Nadell with a pocketbook strap before Diana Nadell bashed her mother-in-law with a solid object then stabbed her multiple times.

Benson, a distant cousin of Diana Nadell, said Diana Nadell had promised her $10,000 to help her kill Peggy Nadell. The two allegedly drove to New York together from Washington and committed the murder in the early morning. Peggy Nadell's daughter found her dead hours later with a knife in her chest.

The other defendants — Eltia Grant, 24, of California, and Tanisha Joyner, 26, of Washington, D.C. — have each pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution. They have agreed to testify against Diana Nadell in exchange for limited or no time behind bars.

Joyner provided Diana Nadell with an alibi by making telephone calls from Washington with the Florida woman's cellphone. Grant, a cousin of Diana Nadell, helped bring all the women together after being recruited by a relative in Jamaica.

The Orange County inmate Diana Nadell allegedly solicited to assist in killing the two witnesses was someone she "believed was being deported to Jamaica," Zugibe said in a news release.

The new charges against Diana Nadell are two counts of conspiracy in the second degree, two counts of intimidating a witness in the first degree, two counts of attempted tampering with a witness in the first degree, and two counts of criminal solicitation in the second degree.

The investigation was conducted by the Clarkstown Police Department, Rockland County District Attorney's Office, Orange County Sheriff's Department and Orange County District Attorney's Office, Zugibe said.

"This office will do everything in its power to vigorously prosecute those who seek to intimidate and harm witnesses," Zugibe said. "This new indictment underscores the lengths our law enforcement partners will go to ensure public safety — on both sides of the jail bars."