Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz today announced that a 29-year-old Queens Village man has been charged with murder, criminal possession of a weapon and other crimes for a deadly stabbing that ended the life of his half-brother in a house on 208th Street in Queens Village last week.

District Attorney Katz said, “This was an alleged act of fratricide, where a man grabbed a knife and violently stabbed his own half-brother to death. In an attempt to cover up the violence, the defendant is also accused of trying to conceal his guilt by hiding evidence.”

The District Attorney’s Office identified the defendant as Wkorasky Voltaire, 29, of 208th Street in the Queens Village section of Queens. The defendant was arraigned late Friday night before Queens Criminal Court Judge Mary Bejarano on a complaint charging him with murder in the second degree, tampering with physical evidence and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. The defendant was remanded without bail. Judge Bejarano ordered Voltaire to return to court on June 15, 2020. If convicted, Voltaire faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

According to the charges, said District Attorney Katz, just before 5 a.m. on Thursday, May 14, 2020, the defendant and his brother, McKenzie Placide were arguing at an uninhabitable house where the 2 men previously lived with their now deceased mother on 208th Street. The defendant, who brought 2 kitchen knives with him from an aunt’s house, argued with his 22-year-old half-brother and allegedly stabbed the victim with one of the knives while inside the residence. That first knife broke and Voltaire allegedly retrieved the second knife he brought with him, followed the injured victim outside and allegedly continued to stab his sibling multiple times in the chest and torso. The defendant left the broken knife inside the vacant house and is accused of disposing of the second knife, his sneakers and blood-covered clothes. The victim told officers his brother had stabbed him before he was taken to a nearby hospital where he died of the injuries.

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.

Assistant District Attorney Franchesca Basso of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, will be prosecuting the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorneys Kaitlyn Gaskin and Kristin Papadopoulos, under the supervision of 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.

It should be noted that a criminal complaint is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.