Kendall Felix, Conspirator in Menachem Stark Kidnapping, Denied Parole Again

Kendall Felix, who conspired in the kidnapping of Menachem Stark, disposed of Menachem’s body and set it aflame, was denied parole for a second time.

According to prosecutors, Menachem was accidentally suffocated during a botched kidnapping and attempted robbery in January 2014, carried out by Kendall’s brother Erskin Felix and cousin Kendel Felix. Kendall joined Erskin and Kendel in the Felix family minivan after Menachem was already kidnapped, bound and gagged, but when the group realized Menachem was dead, Kendall and Kendel drove with Menachem’s body to Great Neck, Long Island, where they purchased gasoline and set the body aflame in a gas-station dumpster.

Kendel and Erskin have both been convicted of murder and kidnapping. Kendel is serving the minimum of 15 years to life in prison after cooperating with prosecutors, while Erskin, the accused ringleader, is serving 24 years to life. Another cousin, Irvine Henry, believed to have played a minor role in the crime, also cooperated with prosecutors and received a three-month sentence.

In March 2019, Kendall accepted a plea deal offered by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun, pleading guilty to second-degree conspiracy and first-degree hindering prosecution, for a 2-1/3-to-seven-year sentence. Prosecutors and the Stark family objected to the offer as excessively lenient.

Unable to post bail, Kendall had been in jail since December 2016, counting as time served and making him eligible for parole almost immediately following his sentencing.

Kendall’s parole request was denied in June 2019, but he successfully appealed for a new hearing before another Parole Board panel.

In a letter to the panel last month, Menachem’s mother-in-law, Sima Bernat, pleaded that Kendall’s parole request be denied.

“Menachem’s wife and children are in constant trauma visualizing this horrific act Kendall did. The memory of a husband and father being brutally burnt … cannot be eradicated from their minds,” she wrote. “Please, I beg of the Parole Board to have mercy on this young wife and children, give them the peace of mind, and the security of knowing that you are keeping Kendall Felix behind bars for his maximum sentence.”

Kendall’s parole request was denied this month. His next scheduled parole hearing is in June of next year.

The Stark family told Hamodia they are pleased with the Parole Board decision.

“Our family is grateful for the denial of Kendall Felix’s parole request,” said Menachem’s brother Yitzy. “What he did to Menachem is unconscionable, and New York is a safer place the longer he remains in prison.”

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rborchardt@hamodia.com