Jury Shown Crime-Scene Video of Slain Landlord

By JOSEPH DE LA CRUZ

The trial of a construction worker accused of killing a Hasidic landlord, resumed Thursday in Brooklyn Supreme Court with the prosecution playing a gruesome crime-scene video for the jury, which showed the victim Menachem Stark’s burnt body inside a gas station dumpster in Great Neck, Long Island.

Felix was visibly frustrated as prosecutors displayed the images on a courtroom projection screen. Stark’s wife and several other family members were visiblly horrified and upset as they turned their backs on the flickering images and left the courtroom.

Bruce Schurman, a Nassau County Detective who filmed and photographed the crime scene, also presented evidence of a Kangol branded ski mask, which was found backwards on Stark’s head and face the night his body was discovered.

“When I first observed the body [Stark] was prone on his stomach with his face down,” Schurman said.

While images of how the victim’s body was found at the scene and placed at the Nassau County medical examiner’s office, where Stark’s autopsy was conducted, were provided, they did not display the condition his body was left in by the suspect.

Detective Matthew Ross of the Nassau County Police Homicide Squad described what couldn’t be seen in the video, on the side of Stark’s body that lay atop a mountain of debris in the dumpster.

“His entire stomach had been eviscerated, and his organs were exposed,” Schurman said. “You could smell the gasoline”.
Also called to testify were New York City police detectives who took over the case days after Stark’s body was found.

Days after the investigation had begun and the snow had started melting Detective Joseph Thompson was cross-examined on evidence he discovered at the location where Stark was taken.

A single broken handcuff, which was found at the scene, had a serial number etched into it. However, when questioned by defense attorney Jack Goldberg, Thompson told the court the serial number on the cuff was not traced.

Prosecutors say that Stark was kidnapped on January 2, 2014 in front of his office at 331 Rutledge St, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn by a group of disgruntled construction workers who were employed by a company he contracted. His body was discovered the very next night at 595 Northern Blvd in Great Neck, New York.

Felix is the only person charged in the slaying after confessing his involvement to police officers on video. He faces 50 years to life in prison if convicted.