Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz today announced that Wkorasky Voltaire, 30, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the May 2020 stabbing death of his half-brother in Queens Village, Queens.

District Attorney Katz said, “This was a senseless act of violence. The defendant chased down his younger sibling and brutally stabbed him to death. The defendant has now admitted his guilt and will be sentenced by the Court for taking a life.”

Voltaire, of 138^th Avenue in the Laurelton neighborhood of Queens, stood before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder today and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree. Justice Holder set sentencing for July 21, 2021, at which time he indicated he will order Voltaire to prison for 19 years, to be followed by five years’ post release supervision.

According to the Court records, shortly before 5 a.m. on May 14, 2020, the defendant met his brother, McKenzie Placide, at an uninhabited Queens Village house on 208^th Street where they once lived with their  mother, who previously passed away. Voltaire was in possession of two kitchen knives when he arrived at the home and began to argue with his brother. The disagreement escalated. Voltaire pulled out one of the knives and stabbed the 22-year-old man. When the knife blade broke, Mr. Placide tried to escape and was able to run out of the house.

The District Attorney said Voltaire ran after his brother, armed with the second knife. The defendant caught up to Mr. Placide and repeatedly stabbed him. He left his brother bleeding and dying in the street with a total of 137 stab wounds.

When police arrived at the scene, according to the charges, they found the victim near death and rushed him to a nearby hospital. Mr. Placide was able to speak and told the police that it was his brother who had attacked him. The young man died soon afterwards at the hospital.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Franchesca Basso, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, prosecuted the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John W. Kosinski and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.