‘Forever haunted’ by this fiend’s evil act
Widow reveals pain of kidnap & killing
Widow Bashie Stark, a tissue in her hand, recounted the family milestones missed by her murdered husband: Two bar mitzvahs. A daughter’s wedding. The birth of a grandchild.
The January 2014 killing of Brooklyn landlord Menachem Stark in a botched extortion plot still reverberates sadly through the lives of his wife and their seven fatherless children, the heartbroken Stark said Wednesday at the sentencing of the man who torched her spouse’s corpse.
Kendall Felix, 30, was sentenced to two to seven years in prison despite pleas from Stark and another relative to hit the defendant with a sentence of four to 12 years.
“Forever I will be haunted by the image of my husband’s tragic end at the hands of this man,” said Bashie Stark as Felix sat mutely in Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun’s courtroom.
Felix, in a khaki jumpsuit and glasses, declined to address the court and said nothing throughout the hearing — staring straight ahead during the victim impact statements.
The slain man’s sister-inlaw issued her own emotional courtroom plea, detailing the devastation inflicted on the Stark family by the killing and torching of its patriarch.
“He was (Bashie’s) soul mate, her best friend,” said Yenti Hershkovitz, 40. “Her life will never, ever be the same. Kendall Felix and his rotten relatives robbed her of that.”
Felix was arrested along with his brother Erskine, their cousin Kendel and a fourth man in connection with the bungled abduction and killing of Stark, 38.
Erskine Felix and his cousin snatched Stark in the middle of a snowstorm outside the victim’s Williamsburg office, but accidentally asphyxiated the man — apparently when one of the kidnappers sat on his chest, authorities said. Erskine Felix, currently on trial for the murder, had done construction work for the victim.
Kendall Felix was recruited after the death to help with the disposal of Stark’s body. The victim’s remains were tossed into a Long Island gas station dumpster, doused with gasoline and set ablaze. Felix was accused of finding an open gas station in the middle of the snowstorm to buy fuel as part of the grisly coverup try.
Hershkovitz said outside the courtroom that Felix warranted a stiffer term given the horrifying nature of the crime.
“I feel that it’s way too little,” she said. “It’s cruel beyond words, and I believe he deserves more. … Seven years isn’t nearly enough for what he deserves.”