Kendall Felix Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy in Menachem Stark Murder

BROOKLYN

An accused co-conspirator in the Menachem Stark, Hy”d, murder case has pleaded guilty.

Kendall Felix accepted a deal Tuesday from Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun to plead guilty to second-degree conspiracy and first-degree hindering prosecution, and be sentenced March 27 to  2-1/3 to seven years in prison.

His brother Erskin Felix has been charged with murder in the case; jury selection in his trial is expected to begin Monday. Their cousin Kendel Felix was found guilty in September 2016 of second-degree murder and kidnapping. Kendel has not yet been sentenced, as he has been cooperating with the prosecution in the case against his cousins.

A fourth man, Irvine Henry, a cousin of the Felixes, has previously pleaded guilty, to a felony charge of hindering prosecution in first degree, and an a misdemeanor of attempted tampering with physical evidence. He is also cooperating with prosecutors, in the hope that he will ultimately have the felony charge dropped and not serve jail time.

Both Kendel Felix and Irvine Henry will testify against Erskin Felix.

Stark, a real-estate developer, was kidnapped and killed in January 2014. In a videotaped confession by Kendel Felix played during his trial, Kendel said he was approached by Erskin, who asked for Kendel’s help in kidnapping Stark – whom both worked for – and forcing him to pay money Erskin said Stark owed him.

Kendel and Erskin waited outside Stark’s Williamsburg office building on the night of January 2, 2014. When Stark exited, the two men forced him into their minivan. Erskin held Stark in the back while Kendel drove to Irvine Henry’s home. Upon arriving, the men realized that Stark was no longer breathing.

Prosecutors believe that Erskin accidentally suffocated Stark while either sitting on him or covering his face.

They drove to Erskin’s house, where they picked up his brother Kendall. The minivan, with all four men and Stark’s lifeless body, then proceeded back toward the area of Stark’s office. Erskin and Henry got out of the car several blocks from Stark’s office and went to scope out the area, possibly seeking to retrieve a tracking device that Erskin is believed to have planted under Stark’s car weeks earlier.

But the area was swarming with police, who had been called after Stark failed to come home. Erskin and Henry then called Kendel and Kendall and told them to drive away.

Kendel and Kendall drove to Great Neck, Long Island, where they discarded Stark’s body and set it aflame in a dumpster in a gas station. It was found the next day by a gas station attendant.

rborchardt@hamodia.com

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