Binghamton man faces indictment in fatal stabbing, DA say
Christopher James leaves the Third Precinct in Bay Shore on April 25, 2016. James, 23, is expected to be arraigned on a grand jury indictment on Tuesday, May 3, 2016, in connection with the fatal stabbing of Kevin Pierson, 38, in February 2010 in Central Islip, according to the Suffolk district attorney. Credit: Ed Betz
A judge ordered a 23-year-old Binghamton man held without bail in Suffolk County Court on Tuesday on an indictment charging him with second-degree murder.
Authorities arrested Christopher James last week, charging him with the murder of Kevin Pierson, 38, who was found stabbed to death in his Central Islip apartment in February 2010.
James pleaded not guilty to the charge in First District Court in Central Islip on April 24 and was remanded.
Judge Timothy Mazzei unsealed the indictment at James’ arraignment on Tuesday and a district attorney’s office spokeswoman said James is due back in court on June 7.
James would have been about 17 years old at the time of the killing.
Police have not released details regarding what led to the arrest of James — or how he knew Pierson.
Officers responding to a call from Pierson’s cousin on Feb. 10, 2010, found him stabbed to death in the bedroom of his apartment in the Park Row Condominium complex on Maple Wing Drive, police said.
The attorney representing James, Richard Stafford, last week said his client has “categorically denied” any involvement in the killing. He said James, who he said was living in Brooklyn at the time the slaying occurred, “doesn’t even know this person” — adding that there are no eyewitnesses placing his client in the area at the time.
Colleagues said Pierson worked in Brownsville, Brooklyn, at a fish wholesaler, where he cleaned fish and loaded trucks for deliveries to retail stores and restaurants in the metropolitan area.
In a federal complaint filed in December 2009, months before he was killed, Pierson had accused his employer, M. Slavin and Sons, of sexual and racial harassment. A decade before he was stabbed to death, Pierson served 90 days in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree rape. He then spent 5 years on probation.
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
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