Construction worker indicted in murder of NY hasid

A Brooklyn construction worker was indicted for the kidnapping and murder of Brooklyn real estate developer Menachem Stark.

A grand jury in Brooklyn on Monday indicted Kendel Felix, who was employed by a contractor hired by Stark, the New York Post reported. Felix was arrested on April 30 and admitted that he and two accomplices accidentally suffocated Stark when he struggled to escape.

New York Police Department detectives are still investigating the alleged accomplices, and hope to make more arrests, law enforcement sources told the newspaper. One allegedly helped Felix abduct Stark, and the other helped set fire to and hide his body.

Felix and the two alleged accomplices reportedly were linked to the crime by evidence discovered in the van used to kidnap Stark, a Hasidic Jew and father of seven. A security camera outside Stark’s office in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn had captured video of the kidnapping.

Felix, 26, has been described by police sources as a “main player” in Stark’s death.

Stark’s body was found January 3 on suburban Long Island some 16 miles from his office, from where he was kidnapped the previous evening. Stark, the father of seven, reportedly was suffocated before his body was placed in a dumpster outside a Great Neck gas station and burned, according to police.

State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn Democrat, praised the borough’s district attorney, Ken Thompson, and the NYPD for “their tenacity in pursuing the murder suspects.”