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Man Convicted In Fatal Yonkers Stabbing

YONKERS, N.Y. -- A Yonkers man faces up to 25 years behind bars for stabbing another city resident to death last spring, the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Antonio Barnett, 23, of Yonkers, faces 25 years in prison for the stabbing death of a 21-year-old city man when he is sentenced in March.

Antonio Barnett, 23, of Yonkers, faces 25 years in prison for the stabbing death of a 21-year-old city man when he is sentenced in March.

Photo Credit: Westchester County DA

Antonio Barnett, 23, was convicted of manslaughter in the April 18 slaying of 21-year-old David Benitez, said acting District Attorney James A. McCarty.

According to a police description of the fatal incident, Benitez had just emerged from a delicatessen on Palisade Avenue and was sipping his morning coffee when Barnett ran up and plunged a large kitchen knife in his back.

The bleeding victim was then chased by Barnett to the William A. Schlobohm Houses, a housing project on Schroeder Street, police said.

A security guard there called 911, and responding officers found Benitez, who was barely alive. He was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx but died on the operating table two hours later, McCarty said.

Barnett was spotted and arrested at a gas station just minutes later, and the knife was recovered by police from the roof of a nearby building, the acting DA said.

According to media reports, Barnett and Benitez knew each other, and the stabbing was not a random incident.

Jurors later convicted Barnett of first-degree manslaughter, a felony, and third-degree possession of a weapon, also a felony.

He remains in the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla and is to be sentenced on March 1.

The case by prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Laura Murphy of the Superior Court Trial Division.

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