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The Yeshiva World

Kendall Felix, the man who pled guilty to bringing the gasoline and setting the fire to Menachem Stark’s murdered body, was sentenced to a minimum of two years and four months to a maximum of seven years on Wednesday.

Family members of the 39-year-old kidnapped and murdered Hasidic Brooklyn landlord, whose body was found charred in a Long Island dumpster, railed against what they said was too lenient a sentence.

Felix, who once worked for Stark, was convicted of second-degree murder in the botched robbery.

With Stark dead, it was Kendall Felix who bought gasoline during a snowstorm and brought it to the dumpster where the man’s body lay.

“He lit a piece of paper on fire and then set Menachem Stark’s body on fire,” said Assistant District Attorney Howard Jackson at sentencing.

At the time, YWN reported that Stark was approached and accosted on the street by Kendel Felix and another individual as he left his office located at 331 Rutledge Street, in Williamsburg, on January 2, 2014 at approximately 11:30 p.m., according to trial testimony and surveillance videos. 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 Nassau County Police in a garbage dumpster at a gas station located in Great Neck, Long Island.

According to trial testimony, including his own confession, the defendant did construction work for Stark and he and others suspected in the murder believed that Stark owed them money. They kidnapped him with the intention of robbing him, but Stark resisted and was killed when one of the kidnappers sat on his chest. They then drove out to Nassau County to dispose of the body, throwing it in a dumpster, throwing gasoline on it and setting it on fire.

According to the Hamodia “Prosecutors believe that Stark was accidentally suffocated during a botched kidnapping and attempted robbery by Kendall’s brother Erskin Felix and cousin Kendel Felix. Kendall joined the others in the family minivan after Menachem was already kidnapped, but when they realized Menachem was dead, Kendall and Kendel drove with Menachem’s body to Great Neck, where they purchased gasoline and set the body aflame in a gas station dumpster.”

Despite all this, Justice Danny Chun declined give Kendall a long sentence, and said he gave the lower sentence due t the defendant’s young age and no other involvement with other crimes. The Judge also said the evidence was clear that the defendant was not the mastermind behind the planning.

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