Menachem Stark's murder trial

On a stormy night in January 2014 close to midnight, Menachem Stark, a Hassidic landlord from Williamsburg left his office located two blocks from his home. Two masked men waiting outside of his office attacked him and dragged him out the door to van waiting.

After a day of searches carried out by police and Haredi organizations, a charred body was found in a trash bin at a gas station in Great Nick in New Jersey. Surveillance video recorded a minivan speeding away from Mr. Stark’s office in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

On Wednesday, as the trial of the man accused of killing Mr. Stark, Kendel Felix, began in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, what had once appeared to be a puzzling whodunit was presented to a jury as a clumsy, tragic, robbery gone wrong. Prosecutors described how Mr. Felix, a carpenter who had once done work for Mr. Stark and many from his own family — had taken part in a plan to abduct Mr. Stark for extortion.

Mr. Felix, 28, is facing a life sentence, and the basic evidence against him is a videotaped confession. In the confession, parts of which were played during pretrial interviews, Mr. Felix explained that he was approached by his cousin Erskine Felix, another worker who claimed that Mr. Stark owed him money, and had been influenced to partake in a plan to frighten the landlord and collect the money.

Prosecutors from the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said that in the middle of the blizzard, the Felix cousins forced Mr. Stark into the minivan after a violent struggle on the street outside his office. When they Realized Stark was dead, they drove to Great Neck, drenched the body with gas, burnt it and left it in the trash.

Mr. Felix’s lawyer, Jack Goldberg, said that the confession had been forced. Mr. Felix suffered brain trauma from a motorcycle accident six years ago, Mr. Goldberg attacked the prosecution’s reasons saying that there had been no request for ransom and that no money had been taken from Mr. Stark.

Mr. Goldberg promised to call a psychologist as a witness to testify that Mr. Felix had been manipulated by the police. Assistant district attorney responded that she would call an expert witness who would testify that Mr. Felix’s confession was valid.

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