Chaptzem Blog!      

A 29-year-old man was convicted of kidnapping and murder on Monday for his role in the killing of a Brooklyn landlord during a botched robbery two years ago.

After a trial of more than two weeks in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, the man, Kendel Felix, was found guilty by a jury of taking part in the murder of Menachem Stark, a 39-year-old landlord and real-estate developer from a Hasidic section of the Williamsburg neighborhood.

On a snowy day in January 2014, Mr. Stark's charred remains were found in a trash bin at a gas station in Great Neck, on Long Island. His death, initially a mystery, prompted intense speculation that he might have been killed because of the bankruptcy of his business or that the murder was related to $2 million that had suddenly vanished from his account.

But according to testimony at the trial and to his own confession to the police and prosecutors, Mr. Felix, a carpenter who did construction work for Mr. Stark, participated in a plot to abduct the developer and extort money from him. In the confession, a videotape of which was played at the trial, Mr. Felix said the scheme had been concocted by one of his cousins, Erskine Felix, and was carried out with the help of other relatives.

In his statement, Mr. Felix admitted helping kidnap Mr. Stark from the street outside his office at 331 Rutledge Street in Williamsburg and forcing him into a waiting van. When Mr. Stark resisted, one of Mr. Felix's accomplices sat on his chest, causing his death. The kidnappers then disposed of the body in the trash bin on Long Island, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire.

Though Mr. Felix is the only person charged and prosecuted in the case so far, the Brooklyn district attorney's office has said the investigation is continuing.