A 20-year-old Long Island man is accused of fatally stabbing a beloved man experiencing homelessness in broad daylight, allegedly leaving him dying along a highway service road before driving away.
Joseph Norton, of Manorville, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 32-year-old Timothy Stark, who was attacked around 3:30 p.m. Monday on the service road near Exit 64 of the Long Island Expressway in Medford, Suffolk County police said.
Authorities said Norton and Stark were involved in a confrontation when Norton got out of his vehicle and chased Stark near the busy rush-hour traffic.
Prosecutors allege Norton then stabbed Stark in the back with a 6-inch switchblade before returning to his vehicle and fleeing the scene, leaving Stark bleeding on the roadside, according to ABC 7.
Stark was taken to NYU Langone Hospital in Patchogue, where doctors pronounced him dead.
Suffolk County patrol officers found Norton shortly afterward about five miles away, stopping him at an intersection in Yaphank, police said.
Retired EMT Jeff Vinci told ABC 7 he saw Stark collapse along the side of the road and immediately went over to try to help.
“His body was moving in a way that could tell he was not breathing anymore,” Vinci told the station. “I checked his pulse. He had no pulse.”
It remains unclear what prompted Norton to allegedly hunt down and kill Stark.
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Norton was arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on Tuesday, where prosecutors alleged he chased Stark across three wide intersections before slamming his head into the pavement and driving the blade into his lung and heart in front of a handful of witnesses and two dashcam videos, ABC 7 reported.
Norton’s attorney, Peter H. Mayer IV, entered a denial to the murder charge — stressing to the court that the charges against his client “are not convictions” and he’s presumed innocent.
A judge ordered Norton to be held without bail following the hearing.
Norton is due back in court on Thursday, online jail records show.
Stark was a beloved fixture in the community, with residents saying he would normally be posted up in a chair on the service road.
Jake Sherack said he and his 7-year-old son would regularly stop to give him food and remembered him as a “kind person.”
“He was always good to us, one of my biggest prides was me and my son going to feed him,” Sherack told the outlet.
“I hope my son knows for the rest of his life that we helped him out. He was just always a kind person.”
Tanika Quashie, who works at the nearby Medford DMV just a block from where Stark was killed, was seen placing candles at a growing memorial on the spot where he used to sit.
“He was somebody, and I want the world to know that,” she told News 12 Long Island.
“I’m just at a loss for words that somebody so kind, didn’t bother anybody, somebody so innocent, and you do that to him? It’s just unforgivable.”
