NYC man charged in fatal Clarkstown stabbing Michael Wimbert, 66, killed in Demarest Avenue home

CLARKSTOWN - Police have arrested a homeless Manhattan man on a murder charge in Tuesday's stabbing death of a 66-year-old West Nyack man whose landlord called him charitable and willing to help people.

Dylan Lentini, 19, was charged with second-degree murder, a felony with a potential prison term of 15 to 25 years to life, in the killing of Michael Wimbert. He was arraigned in Town Court and held without bail.

At a news conference following Lentini's arraignment, Chief Michael Sullivan said police were still investigating how the two men knew each other. Lentini told police he had been living at the Covenant House homeless shelter in Manhattan.

Detectives had been interviewing Lentini after finding him near the crime scene early Tuesday, bleeding from a gash to his right hand, Sullivan said.

Police had responded to the multifamily house at 68 Demarest Ave. shortly after 1:45 a.m. after receiving a call from a resident reporting that a young man had run out of the house yelling, "Call the hospital! Call 911!" the chief said.

Officers saw blood on the doorknob, Sullivan said, broke down the locked door and found Wimbert with stab wounds in a second-floor apartment of the three-apartment home. He was pronounced dead at the scene by Rockland Paramedic Services.

The chief said investigators recovered what they believe was the murder weapon, a kitchen knife.

A grand jury is expected to consider the case on Friday, Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said.

John Wall, who owns the house with his wife, Virginia, said he did not know Lentini but that Wimbert had a "tendency to help people."

"He was a charitable, caring individual," said Wall, an insurance broker. "I presume (he) might have been helping this young man. He was a calm and peaceful soul."

Wall said Wimbert once owned a fish store on Route 59 and sold the business during his divorce before he moved into the Demarest Avenue house 13 years ago. He was single and recovering from eye surgery, Wall said.

Wall said Wimbert has worked "here and there, and in education."

"He's had a hard time getting work," Wall said.

Investigators were collecting evidence from the scene Tuesday morning as a light still glowed from a window on the top floor.

Seeing the police work the scene was "really, really freaky," said Kristen Ross, 51, who said she has lived in the neighborhood about 40 years.

Clarkstown homicide investigation A 66-year-old man was stabbed to death at a multi-family Demerest Avenue home, Clarkstown police said. Reporter Steve Lieberman is at the scene, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015.

Ross said she awoke around 5:30 a.m. and was walking along the street when she saw about 10 police officers putting yellow crime-scene tape around the property.

"I've been here all my life," she said. "I don't ever recall anything like this. It's very scary. They put on the white suits and I said, 'This can't be good.'"

Ross said she has never seen anyone come or go from the house.

John Prince, who said he has lived across the street from the house for 20 years, made the same point, noting how quiet the home is on a busy street that connects Strawtown and West Nyack roads.

"I've never seen anyone come out of the house," he said.

The homicide was the third in Rockland County this year and the second in Clarkstown.

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