Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz today announced that Wkorasky Voltaire has been indicted by a Queens County grand jury on murder, criminal possession of a weapon and other charges in the death of his half-brother. The defendant allegedly stabbed the younger man in May 2020 inside the house they once lived in with the two men’s deceased mother.

District Attorney Katz said, “This was a senseless act of violence and made all the worse by the fact that the alleged killer took the life of his own brother. The defendant will be held accountable for his alleged actions.”

Voltaire, 29, of 138^th Avenue in the Laurelton neighborhood of Queens, was arraigned before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth C. Holder this morning on a 4-count indictment charging him with murder in the second degree, tampering with physical evidence and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Justice holder set the defendant’s return date for November 18, 2020. Voltaire is being held in custody without bail. If convicted, Voltaire faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

According to the charges, shortly before 5 a.m. on May 14, 2020, Voltaire arrived at the uninhabited Queens Village home armed with two kitchen knives. The siblings had previously lived together in the 208^th Street house with their mother before she died. The defendant and McKenzie Placide became ensnared in a heated argument when suddenly Voltaire pulled out one of the knives and allegedly stabbed his 22-year-old brother once causing the knife to break.

The District Attorney said, the victim managed to run outside with Voltaire pursuing him into the street with the second knife in hand. The defendant caught up to his brother and allegedly repeatedly stabbed him and then left him for dead. Voltaire then tried to conceal the second knife and the clothing he was wearing during the attack. 

As outlined in the charges, when police arrived at the scene they found the victim bleeding on the pavement and before he was rushed to a nearby hospital, Placide stated that his brother had allegedly attacked him. The young man died soon afterwards at the hospital.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Christopher D’Antonio of the New York City Police Department’s 105th Precinct and Detective Tony Faranda of the NYPD’S Queens South Homicide Squad.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Franchesca Basso of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, will be prosecuting the, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John W. Kosinski and Kenneth M. Appelbaum, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.