Crown Heights Resident Charged with Stark’s Murder

Sources have confirmed to Yeshiva World News that one person has in fact been arrested and charged in connection with the murder of Mencahem Stark, HYD. Kendel Felix, 26-years-old, of 921 Montgomery Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, was charged with murder in the 2nd degree.

There had been much delay today after five persons had been detained and questioned in connection to the murder. As of this time, newly elected Kings County D.A. Ken Thompson has decided to just charge one individual in the murder. The other four individuals are expected to be released, although additional arrests are expected in the near future.

As YWN reported earlier this morning, our sources tell us that although there had been much speculation as to who and why had committed the murder, this tragedy had been a planned robbery, which ended very badly.

Stark, 39, was accosted and forced into a van outside his Williamsburg office late on the evening of Jan. 2. Stark’s partially burned body was found the next day by police in a trash bin at a Getty station on Cutter Mill Road in Great Neck.

As YWN reported last month, detectives had informed the Stark family that after months of investigations, an arrest was imminent. Although a date had not been set for an arrest, there was speculation that it would occur before Pesach or immediately after.

Update:

Kendel Felix, 26, was employed by a contractor who worked for Stark, the New York Daily News reported. Felix, who was arrested Wednesday night after being questioned by police earlier in the day, is described by police sources as a “main player” in the January killing.

A police source told the Daily News that Felix and two accomplices wanted to rob Stark, not kill him. Felix reportedly told police that they accidentally suffocated Stark when he struggled to escape. The accomplices also were taken into custody and questioned on Wednesday.