By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — An emotional Mandy Stein wiped away tears on Monday when prosecutors played the 911 call from the night she discovered her mother's cold, brutalized body sprawled in her Fifth Avenue apartment.
"My mom, she's dead, I think. Please help me!" she wailed.
The daughter, a 35-year-old documentary filmmaker, testified Monday in the murder trial of Natavia Lowery, 28, who is accused of bludgeoning 62-year-old celebrity realtor Linda Stein on Oct. 30, 2007.
Lowery is charged with using Stein's credit cards to steal from her boss's credit card and bank accounts for months and then beating her to death with a yoga stick to cover up her crimes.
Mandy is the first of Stein's two daughters to take the stand in Lowery's trial. Samantha, 36, is also scheduled to testify.
Mandy, a Los Angeles resident who was raised in New York, was staying in her mother's Upper East Side apartment while working on a film about the closing of CBGB's, an iconic Manhattan music venue.
She returned from a work-related meeting in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to the horrific scene of her bloodied and lifeless mother lying in the living room, wearing a blue North Face fleece and running sneakers, Mandy testified.
"I came home and my mom is in a pool of blood," the hysterical daughter told police dispatchers.
Shortly after the murder, Lowery confessed the crime to police but her attorney argued her interrogation room statements were coerced, that she was telling homicide detectives a false story in order to escape a 10-hour grilling.
"A woman who got through her entire life by telling people what they wanted to hear told the police the story that they wanted to hear — a story that's false," said defense attorney John Christie.
Mandy will continue testimony Tuesday. The superintendent and doorman from Stein's apartment building are expected to follow.
