An Upper West Side mom whose philandering hubby is charged with snapping her neck to land her $5 million fortune was terrified of him, her friend testified Thursday in Manhattan court.
“Its was toxic. It was scary,” Stephanie Goldman said of slain wife Shele Danishefsky’s marriage to defendant Rod Covlin. “Definitely she was afraid. She was afraid for many reasons.”
Prosecutors say that Covlin, who was living across the hall from his estranged wife and their two kids, used a martial arts hold to break Danishefsky’s neck and left her bloodied corpse in the tub for their 9-year-old daughter to find.
Before her murder, Danishefsky frequently confided in Goldman, her laser-hair-removal technician turned pal, about her marital woes.
The UBS wealth manager complained that her ne’er-do-well hubby was always away at backgammon tournaments, where he often cheated on her.
“She was the one working, making the money, had the money, and he was just playing backgammon,” Goldman told jurors, as some of Danishefsky’s family members, who were seated in the gallery, nodded their heads in agreement.
Goldman said that the beautiful blond banker was so afraid that Covlin would kidnap their children, Anna and Myles, that she carried their passports on her at all times.
Earlier in the day, jurors were shown haunting photos of the bathroom where Danishefsky met her demise.
The shots were taken on Jan. 17, 2009, by her family and depict a soaking tub with a wall cabinet above spout torn from its hinges. A small baseball themed child’s potty sits on the bathtub’s ledge.
Covlin told police at the time that he thought his wife, with whom he was in the midst of a nasty divorce, had fallen and ripped the cabinet from its upper hinge when she tried to brace herself.
There was no blood visible in the photos, and it’s unclear who cleaned up the scene.
Danishefsky’s boss at UBS, John Alex, told jurors that about eight months before the slaying, Covlin called the bank and falsely claimed that his wife was on drugs and stealing money from their joint account.
Alex called her into his office and told her of the allegations. “Shele was a very poised, professional woman, and she basically collapsed emotionally,” he testified.
But Justice Ruth Pickholz wouldn’t let jurors hear what the shaken mom told her boss during that meeting. She said that her husband would kill her one day.
Defense lawyer Robert Gottlieb has argued that Danishefsky’s death was likely a tragic slip and fall, and she could have broken her neck when she hit the side of the tub.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., who doesn’t usually attend trials, watched part of the morning’s proceedings from the gallery. The trial continues Monday.