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A smooth-talking New Jersey two-timer accused of hiring his mistress to kill his wife was wheeled into court yesterday looking like an ad for a personal-injury firm.
With his left arm in a sling and his left leg in a cast, wheelchair-riding Kashif Parvaiz was doing his best to look more like a helpless, innocent victim than an alleged cold, calculating killer.
But the invalid look didn’t stop a New Jersey judge from tripling the defendant’s bail to $3 million after prosecutors said Parvaiz conspired with his Massachusetts mistress to gun down his wife and wound him in a staged attack as they walked with their 3-year-old son Aug. 16 on a street in Boonton.
“The twisted tale of these two individuals is more egregious and more narcissistic than anything I’ve seen in 25 years,” said Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi. “The case is extremely strong.”
Parvaiz, 26, was shot in the leg, wrist and buttocks during the hit on his wife, which prosecutors said was carried out by his paramour, Antoinette Stephen.
Authorities said Parvaiz confessed to the plot, a claim disputed by his attorney, Mitchell Ansell.
“My client did not kill his wife and intends to plead not guilty,” Ansell said outside of the Morristown court. “He loved his wife, and the last thing he’d ever want to do is murder his wife.”
Despite the increase, the hefty bail was still far short of Bianchi’s request. He had asked Superior Court Judge Thomas Manahan to set bail at $5 million, calling Parvaiz a flight risk who thrives on “deception and deceit.”
Bianchi also cited a real-estate transaction, completed just hours before the murder, that could net Parvaiz $2.5 million. Sources said his aging gay sugar daddy, Martin Ragusa, sold Parvaiz a stake in a Queens apartment building.
A bail hearing for alleged shooter and accomplice Stephen, 27, was postponed until her public defender, Dolores Mann, can brief her. Stephen’s bail was already set at $5 million.
Stephen arrived at court wearing a yellow Morris County-jail jumpsuit. Her hair was in a ponytail.
Stephen was extradited from Massachusetts on Monday.
Additional reporting
by Josh Margolin