(Photo Of Kendel Feliz today in court. Photo by Gregory P. Mango / Pool)
Kendel Felix, the 26-year-old man charged in the case of Williamsburg businessman Menachem Stark z”l, appeared Thursday afternoon before a judge in a Brooklyn courtroom. He was ordered held without bond.
Felix was charged with kidnapping in the 2nd degree and murder in the 2nd degree, according to court papers.
Prosecutors told the court that Felix was the main suspect and driver of the van while attempting to commit a robbery as Menachem Stark z”l left his office on that January night.
Felix confessed to police that he and another person physically struggled with Menachem Stark, forced him into the vehicle and drove away. According to the chief medical examiner of Nassau County, Stark died as a result of asphyxia by compression of neck and chest.
Apparently, Stark was screaming at the top of his voice, when Felix and the other men were ordered to sit on him to quieten him down. As a result, Stark suffocated and passed away.
Several community leaders and Assemblyman Dov Hikind joined Stark family members as Felix was brought before the judge. Felix did not request bail and will remain held under arrest until the next court hearing, which will take place on May 5, 2014.
Flanked by family members, Assemblyman Dov Hikind praised the NYPD and Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson for their commitment in bringing the perpetrators to justice. “Today is the beginning of justice. We’ve been waiting for this .. DA Thompson is determined to put away the people responsible for this horrible act of violence, which resulted in the modded of Menachem Stark,” Mr. Hikind told reporters outside the courtroom.
With tears flowing down his face, Yitzy Stark told reporters that while his brother Menachem cannot be brought back, the family is relieved that justice was served.
(Jacob Kornbluh – YWN)
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18 Responses
I would estimate 20 years. In order to get a confession, the prosecutor had to buy the story that the murder was not deliberate.
I hope he rots in a jail cell for the rest of his life…the death penalty would be too good for him!!
Would not be suprised if askanim got the Stark family to agree to a plea bargin for less jail time. In exchange, certain information about the deceased will not become public.
HIS DEFENSE IS “HE DIDN’T MEAN TO KILL HIM AND DIDN’T HAVE TO DIE” WE FIND THIS IN THE GEMURA “P’SIK REYSHA V’LO YOMUS” REMOVE HIS HEAD AND HE SHOULDN’T DIE. NOW WE DEAL HERE WITH A LAMDEN.
There were two guys in the video grabbing Reb Menachem z”l. Were is the, at least, one other guy? Something’s missing here.
Reb ader–hard to estimate a sentence without knowing whether he has or will roll over on the other guy(s).
he resembles the guy that is caught on video
Why does the photo caption not state which of the two men in the foreground is the suspect – the guy on the right who looks like a banker, or the guy on the left, who doesn’t look like a banker?
And note the ironic typo in the photo caption: Mr. Felix does not look feliz at all.
He does not care for human life. that’s why he and or accomplices made “the mistake”
He has not been convicted so you should not call him a killer, he is only a suspected killer.
Mitzvahman613, maybe Bin Laden and Hitler yms are also not killers since they were never convicted
Wow! He did not requested Bail! Seems like he feels guilty and is ready to suffer. But hey, he did not plea guilty.
“He was “ordered” to sit on him to quieten him down. As a result Stark was suffocated and passed away.”
#8:
The fella on the right does look 28. We’d never had guessed if not for your astute comment…
Re comment 13’s comment on my comment no. 8: Yes, I am sure we all (including me) assumed that the young gent on the left was the suspect, and the older gent on the right was probably his lawyer (a different kind of criminal than bankers). And the apparent youthfulness of the young gent is probably not why we all assumed he was the suspect. The simple fact is that we readers of YWN seem generally to suspect that dark-complected people are suspect. The point of my comment was to suggest to the YWN photo-captions editor not to feed into that unkind assumption by leaving it to readers to guess or assume the identity of the persons in a news photo. Better journalistic practice would be to identify the persons in a photo by connecting there names with their positions in the photo. I think that’s pretty astute.
Nfgo3–stop projecting your own racial stereotypes on the masses.
And if we did suspect the guy on the left was the perp it is justified statistically, given the disproprionate number of crimes minorities commit vs. general population. Its not racist, its factual, not that I expect you, deblassio, obama, sharpton or any other politically correct race hustlers to acknowledge that.
Re comments 15 and 16: I liked comment 15 until I read comment 16. Many commenters on YWN have echoed your comment 16, which is why I (perhaps unfairly or incorrectly) projected my racial sterotypes onto other YWN readers. But generalities, even if true, are meaningless when applied to a single individual, like the unhappy Mr. Felix. And your suggestion that I am a “race hustler,” or that Mayor de Blasio or President Obama are race hustlers, is nonsense.
So next time, quit while you are ahead.
#3,
why would you think the family would be relived that Justice has been served? there are 3 more suspects in an ongoing investigation, why on earth should this be considered justice? Justice will only be served when All those responsible for his death will be held accountable and prosecuted to the maximum. The mayor & Police commissioner are doing the right thing for not making any statements. Leaving it over for the Assemblyman to make his own statements to the reporters.