The elderly son of the late millionaire philanthropist Brooke Astor wept on Thursday on being found guilty of defrauding his late mother in the biggest society trial seen by New York in years.
Anthony Marshall now faces a mandatory jail sentence of at least one year — and perhaps as many as 25 years.
Jurors delivered their verdict on the 11th full day of deliberations, ending a five-month trial that revealed the New York society doyenne’s sad decline. She was 105 and had Alzheimer’s disease when she died in 2007.
The jury convicted Marshall of 14 counts, including first-degree grand larceny and scheming to defraud, but acquitted him on two charges, falsifying business records and another first-degree grand larceny count. His codefendant, estate lawyer Francis Morrissey Jr, was convicted on all five charges, including scheming to defraud, conspiracy and forgery.
Marshall, wearing a dark suit, looked at the jurors as they were polled. Morrissey, 66, looked down but didn’t betray any emotion. They will remain free on bail until their Dec. 8 sentencing.
Morrissey faces up to seven years in prison.
“I’m stunned by the verdict,” said Marshall’s attorney, Frederick Hafetz. “We are greatly disappointed in it, and we will definitely appeal.”
After the jury left the courtroom, Marshall’s wife, Charlene, stood at the rail with her hand on Marshall’s shoulder, her eyes glistening. When reporters asked her for a response, she said only, “I love my husband,” and gave him a brief hug. The couple walked out of the courthouse, hand in hand, to a waiting limousine.
The trial offered a peek into high society from Park Avenue to Palm Beach as prosecutors told a Dickensian tale of upper-crust money-grubbing with a deteriorating grande dame at its center.
The case put Astor’s famous friends on the witness stand and her dark final years on display. Jurors heard how a benefactor renowned for her elegance and wit became a disoriented invalid fearful of her own shadow.
Marshall “stole from his mother while she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, making her life worse while enriching his own,” prosecutor Elizabeth Loewy said after the verdict.
Marshall was accused of a range of tactics — from scheming to inherit millions of dollars to simply stealing artwork off her walls. Morrissey was accused of helping manipulate a confused Astor into changing her will to leave Marshall millions of dollars that had been destined for charity.
Jurors rejected only the falsifying business records charge — it alleged that Marshall lied to an accountant about US$757,000 he got from Astor — and a grand larceny count that concerned the US$10 million sale of one of her favorite paintings.
The verdict came three days after an unidentified juror asked to be dismissed because she felt “personally threatened” during deliberations.
Another juror, communications and technology consultant Philip Bump, called deliberations “enormously stressful” in a post on his blog after the verdict was announced.
“But the overwhelming quality and thoughtfulness of my fellow jurors made it more fascinating than anything,” Bump wrote. “I’m happy it’s over. But tomorrow, I’ll miss it.”
Astor’s last will, created on Jan. 30, 2002, left millions of dollars to her favorite charities. Amendments in 2003 and 2004 gave Marshall most of her estate.
Prosecutors portrayed Marshall — a former US ambassador and Tony Award-winning Broadway producer — as a greedy heir who couldn’t wait for his mother to die, buying himself a US$920,000 yacht with her money but refusing to get a US$2,000 safety gate to keep her from falling.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the