By Alexander Dworkowitz
A 49-year-old man was stabbed to death in the Hollis home of his estranged wife on Thanksgiving Day, but the man arrested in connection with the stabbing will not be charged with murder for now, officials said.
Kenny Stevens, 49, of East Elmhurst, fought with Garry Cirksey in the home of Cirksey’s wife, Sandra, last Thursday evening, police said. According to police, Stevens, a friend of Sandra Cirksey, stabbed her husband twice with a large hunting knife, and Cirksey died from those wounds.
Sandra Cirksey told the TimesLedger that her husband attacked Stevens and Stevens then retaliated.
“Kenny said, ‘Yo, look what you did to my head!’” she said Friday morning, saying Cirksey had hit Stevens on the head with a bottle and opened a wound that required stitches.
“And after that, everything was like blank,” Sandra Cirksey said. “Now my husband’s dead.”
Stevens came into Sandra Cirksey’s home after driving her back from a party, she said.
Queens District Attorney Brown said Stevens was not currently being charged with murder.
“He’s being charged with weapons possession, and the entire matter will be presented to the grand jury,” said Brown.
According to Betsy Herzog of the DA’s office, bail was set for Stevens at $1,000 at his arraignment Friday evening. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted of the misdemeanor, said Herzog.
Sandra Cirksey said she had a restraining order against her husband, whom she met more than 10 years ago and married in June 2000.
“He wasn’t allowed to come in,” said Sandra Cirksey of her husband. “But he kept coming in. He would go to the basement window and kick it in.”
Sandra Cirksey said her husband, who worked in the stockroom at the Herald Square Macy’s in Manhattan, had a history of beating her.
“He assaulted me, broke my hand, broke this finger twice,” she said,
Sandra Cirksey also said her husband and Stevens, whom she met this past summer, had gotten into fights in the past. According to Sandra Cirksey, Stevens, who weighs over 300 pounds, once sat on her husband and broke his ribs.
“God bless him, but my husband didn’t get along with anyone,” she said.
Garry Cirksey was her second husband. Sandra Cirksey said she has four children and 10 grandchildren from her previous husband, who is now dead. She and Garry Cirksey had no children together.
Lydia Smith, a neighbor who came to comfort Cirksey, said her husband, whose mother still lives nearby, never bothered anyone but Sandra Cirksey.
“Garry was a cool guy,” she said.
Cirksey said her husband had a warm side to him.
“He was a very good person until he started drinking vodka,” she said. “When he drinks the vodka, it’s like Jekyll and Hyde.
“He’s still dead. He’s still my husband. I love him.”
Reach Reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
