Teen charged in fatal stabbing

Killing possibly over $20 debt, police say

A blood-stained kitchen knife and a trail of blood were clues that led to a teenage boy being charged with murder, Margate Police say.

Officers were called Nov. 20 to “a person down” in the driveway of a home in the 600 block of Melaleuca Drive. In a parked car, the body of Kelen Joseph, 35, was found with a bite mark on his left forearm and multiple stab wounds. Witnesses and friends of the man led detectives to Brian Rahim, 17, of Margate, who is accused of stabbing Joseph on Nov. 18, possibly over a $20 debt, according to court documents.

A witness told police that the dead man was known to sell cocaine in the street, and that they may find more information at the Golden Palms apartments at 6000 NW Seventh Avenue, across the street from where his body was found, the documents state.

The neighborhood is west of State Road 7 and north of West Atlantic Boulevard.

A witness at the apartment complex presented a plastic bag to detectives that held a blue Cuisinart kitchen knife and, in a common area of the complex, pointed out an apparent trail of blood in a hallway where the weapon was found Nov. 19, the day after the stabbing, an arrest

affidavit said.

In one of the apartments, a resident told detectives that “Jit,” later identified as Brian Rahim, had come to the home looking for a knife. The resident didn’t realize then that a blue Cuisinart knife was missing from the kitchen.

Another witness told police that Rahim said Joseph owed him $20, and that the teen wanted to find him.

One night, Rahim — wearing a blood-stained shirt and carrying a sandwich bag filled with crack cocaine — appeared before a witness who told investigators that the teenager said he’d collected a debt from a friend, documents said.

The knife was analyzed by a Coral Springs Police fingerprint examiner, who found two of Rahim’s fingerprints were left in the blood on it, according to authorities. The Broward Sheriff’s crime lab found Joseph’s DNA on the knife, according to the investigation.

When Rahim was taken into custody, he also had an apparent bite mark on his arm as well as cuts on his hands, police said. The state attorney’s office is charging Rahim as an adult with the offense of murder in the second degree, without premeditation.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit during his bond court appearance Thursday, Rahim shook his head as he heard the charge.

Broward County Judge Michael Davis ordered Rahim held in jail without bond.

Rahim