Additionally, a Second Defendant Is Charged
with Hindering Prosecution
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together
with Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill, today announced that a 38-year-old
Brooklyn man has been charged for his participation in the kidnapping and
murder of Williamsburg landlord Menachem Stark in January 2014.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant
is alleged to be the mastermind whose plot to kidnap Menachem Stark and extort
money from him ended with his death. This long-term, complex investigation
leading to the arrest of this defendant and his co-defendant is testament to
the commitment of this office and the New York City Police Department to get
justice for the Stark family.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as
Erskin Felix, 38, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He is presently awaiting
arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on a criminal complaint in which he is
charged with first-degree kidnapping and second-degree murder. He faces up to
25 years to life in prison if convicted. Also charged in connection with the
case is the defendant’s brother, Kendall Felix, 28, of Crown Heights. He is
awaiting arraignment on a complaint in which he is charged with hindering
prosecution and tampering with evidence. He faces up to seven years in prison
if convicted.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to the
investigation, Stark was approached and accosted on the street by Erskin Felix
and his cousin, Kendel Felix, as he left his office located at 331 Rutledge
Street, in Williamsburg, on January 2, 2014 at approximately 11:30 p.m. After
an extended physical struggle with those individuals, Stark was forced into a
waiting vehicle and abducted from the location.
On January 3, 2014 at approximately 4 p.m., approximately
17 hours after the kidnapping, Stark’s body, which had been partially burned,
was discovered by a Nassau County police officer in a garbage dumpster at a gas
station located in Great Neck, Long Island.
According to the investigation, Erskin Felix knew Stark
and did construction work for him. He allegedly enlisted his cousin, Kendel
Felix, to help kidnap Stark in an effort to extort money from him. During the
course of the kidnapping, however, Stark resisted and was asphyxiated when one
of the kidnappers sat on his chest.
It is further alleged that Kendel and Erskin then picked
up his brother, Kendall, to enlist his aid in getting rid of the body. They
drove to Rutledge Street, but when Erskin got out of the vehicle, he saw the
area was flooded with police. He then directed Kendel and Kendall to go elsewhere
to dispose of the body. They then drove out to Nassau County, threw the body in
a dumpster and set it on fire.
The Nassau County Medical Examiner’s Office conducted an
autopsy on Stark and determined the cause of death to be asphyxia by
compression of the neck and chest.
Kendel Felix was convicted of first-degree kidnapping and
second-degree murder last month following a jury trial. He was arrested in May
2014. He is expected to be sentenced on November 2, 2016. He faces up to 25
years to life in prison.
The case was investigated by New York City Police
Detective Christopher Scarry of the 90th Precinct Detective Squad, under the
supervision of Lieutenant Seamus Doherty, and Detective Matthew Collins
(retired) and Detective Albert Brust of the Brooklyn North Homicide Squad,
under the supervision of Lieutenant John Tennant.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Assistant District
Attorney Howard Jackson and Senior Assistant District Attorney Emily Dean, of
the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Kenneth Taub,
Chief of the Homicide Bureau, and by Assistant District Attorney Christopher
Blank, a Bureau Chief, in the District Attorney’s Investigations Division,
A
criminal complaint is an accusatory instrument and not proof of a defendant’s
guilt
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