Menachem Stark’s Family, Witnesses Testify on Second Day of Trial

Reb Menachem Stark’s wife, Bashie, and his brother testified yesterday on the second day of the trial of his accused killer, Kendel Felix.

Jurors were shown graphic images of the dumpster in which Reb Menachem’s body was found the day after his abduction and murder.

Bashie Stark described waiting for her husband to come home to go to a chasunah that night.

In the courtroom, video was shown of previously unseen footage of Reb Menachem entering his office that tragic night. The footage was difficult for family members to watch, who sobbed audibly.

Reb Menachem, a real estate developer, was kidnapped outside his office at 331 Rutledge Street in Williamsburg on January 2, 2014, in an intended robbery. His body was found smoldering in a dumpster outside a Getty station on Cutter Mill Road in Great Neck, New York, on January 3, 2014.

According to coroner reports, he died of suffocation, and was also badly burned on his torso and hands.

Reb Menachem exited his office at around 11:45 p.m. on January 2 into a heavy blizzard. A surveillance camera positioned near the office captured images of Reb Menachem struggling with two attackers for nearly five minutes, before being forced into a silver Dodge Caravan. Broken handcuffs and plastic restraining tape were later found on the sidewalk.

In May 2014, 26-year-old Kendal Felix, a construction worker, was indicted on charges of second-degree murder, kidnapping, and attempted robbery in this case. Felix lived in nearby Crown Heights and had done about $20,000 worth of construction work for Reb Menachem but had not yet been paid. He said that he and two accomplices had kidnapped Reb Menachem hoping to get the money. Felix confessed to the killing and admitted to being the driver of the van, as well as one of the men who wrestled with Reb Menachem on the sidewalk.

Felix implicated two other men in the murder, but they were arrested and then released. According to Felix’s alleged confession, one of the accomplices said “He owes me money” just before they grabbed Reb Menachem.

Reb Menachem was 38 years old.

{Gavriel Sitrit-Matzav.com Newscenter}