Va. man held in ’96 NYC slay
A Virginia man has been hauled up to New York to face charges he helped his sister murder her rich husband in Manhattan two decades ago — so she could pocket a $1.5 million insurance bounty.
Evan Wald, 43, was arraigned Thursday on one count of seconddegree murder in the death of his brother-in-law, Howard Pilmar, who was slain near the Empire State Building in 1996.
Justice Jill Konviser ordered a glum-faced Wald held without bail as his family blew him kisses from the gallery in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Wald, of Lorton, Va., and his sister, Roslyn Pilmar, 60, were arrested in August on the cold-case murder.
But Wald fought extradition for almost two months.
Pilmar — who ran a combination office-supply store and gourmet-coffee bar in the early ’90s — had been found stabbed 27 times in a hallway near his office.
Wald had long been linked to the murder.
His blood was allegedly found in the stabbed man’s office, and he had a cut on his hand when police interviewed him the day after the slaying, according to prosecutors.
The case broke after the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and NYPD re-interviewed more than 30 people, some of whom had become “more talkative,” a source told The Post last summer.
Defense lawyer Daniel Gotlin declined to comment.