The man on trial for the murder of a prominent Brooklyn landlord looked more sleepy than concerned during closing arguments Thursday — dozing off at one point despite the fact that he could face life behind bars if convicted.
Kendel Felix’s fate now lies in the hands of a 10-woman, two-man jury, but he spent part of prosecutor Howard Jackson’s summations with his face cradled in one hand, apparently lulled to sleep by the mountains of evidence Jackson and ADA Emily Dean have leveled against him in a three-week trial.
Felix’s eyelashes fluttered as he listened to Jackson describe the “damning evidence” that placed him at every stage of the botched robbery that left Menachem Stark dead, and his charred body burning in a Great Neck dumpster in January 2014.
That evidence included an alleged confession video, in which Felix said he was “scared s–tless” and panicked when he realized Stark was dead in his uncle’s car.
Defense attorney Jack Goldberg claimed his client is an easily manipulated, “weak-minded” man who was the NYPD’s answer to an unsolved, high-profile crime.