Joseph Kernizan ( NU LOOK'S NY REP) Wanted for murder
Story By SNEJANA FARBEROV and EMMA REYNOLDS
Images & Videos: OnLine
A music promoter allegedly stalked his ex and her new lover for months before shooting them both in the head outside a motel.
Joseph Kernizan is suspected of gunning down Tracy Bennett and her reggae star boyfriend Wayne Hamilton as they left a New York motel following a steamy tryst.
Ms Bennett, 38, was heard begging for her life in the Bronx car park before she and Mr Hamilton were murdered, witnesses said.
Mr Hamilton, also known as Captain Barkey, had apparently previously taunted his lover's former partner in a song called Nah Lef Joe.
The track, released in 2010, is about about having sex with a woman who has not left her partner, with the chorus running, 'She tell me she nah lef Joe.'
Friends said the song was aimed at Kernizan, 42, who police are hunting in connection with Saturday's double murder outside the Holiday Motel.
'It’s a song about her not leaving Joe,' said Ms Bennett’s friend Bella, who declined to give her last name. 'He was begging her to leave Joe for a long time.'
Mr Hamilton, 50, had repeatedly been warned by friends to end the affair because Kernizan was 'a serious man,' dancehall artist Wickerman told Jamaican entertainment news site One876Entertainment.
Hamilton’s grieving music partner, David 'Wickerman' Taylor, told the New York Post that Kernizan had been stalking Mr Hamilton for months.
'It was August when he told me that this man in New York was following him,' Mr Taylor said in an emotional interview from Jamaica.
'Barkey said the man trailed him, he was stalking him. And he tried to run him down, off the road.
'I said, "You’ve got to be careful." I warned him, "You don’t know what this guy will do."
'We figured he had a tracking device on her.
'That was Barkey’s only enemy. Everyone loved him. He was not a troublemaker.'
Police believe Kernizan was waiting when Ms Bennett and Mr Hamilton emerged from the Holiday Motel at around 3.10am and were about to drive away.
Ms Bennett screamed: 'Don't do it! Don't do it!' before her jilted boyfriend allegedly fired more than two dozen bullets at the defenceless pair.
Mr Hamilton was shot several times in the back of the head as he tried to run away, while Ms Bennett was shot in the head as she stood beside a Toyota Camry with the motor running.
Witnesses who were celebrating a birthday in a room upstairs said they overheard four or five gunshots, 1010 WINS reported, and ran to see what was happening.
'I looked out my window and saw a lady standing there,' said party guest Ricky Gugliotta.
She was begging him not to shoot her, but then he shot her twice and she went down.'
Both were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services, according to the New York Daily News.
Kernizan fled the scene in a blue or green sedan, sources said.
Motel guest Augustine Mawugbe, 45, said he was asleep in his room when he heard gunshots.
He said he looked outside and saw a tall man in a brown polo shirt firing a pistol.
He said the man fired about ten times, and then got into a light green Toyota Camry or Ford Taurus and drove away at speed.
Ms Bennett had been dating Ms Hamilton for five years, friends said, but had struggled to leave Kernizan, the father of two of her three children, a 12-year-old girl and seven-year-old boy.
Her oldest child, daughter Dajahnae, 18, rushed home from the University of Baltimore after learning her mother was dead.
'He was so obsessed with her,' said her friend Bella.
The 38-year-old even took out an order of protection against the music promoter, making him even more enraged, said others.
Her neighbours said they often heard her and Kernizan, nicknamed 'Country', screaming at each other and police were regularly called to their tidy two-storey home.
'We always heard them fighting,' said Carolina Manzano.
Neighbours described Ms Bennett as a sweet woman who was seen leaving her house every morning for her job as a nurse at Winthrop University Hospital, while Kernizan stayed out late and often returned in flashy cars.
Tenants at a house he owned in Brooklyn said he also owned a nearby barbershop, opened a club and owned four different cars.
Mr Hamilton's friends said he was originally from Jamaica but was now living in Milwaukee with his wife Mavis, who knew nothing about his affair with Ms Bennett.
‘I saw him last night at Memories playing dominoes,’ said Oneil Taylor, referring to a Bronx nightclub.
Another friend, an shuttle driver, said he had picked up Mr Hamilton - best known for his 1996 hit Go Go Wine - on Friday from the airport and brought him to the Fenton Avenue club.
Mrs Hamilton, who had dropped him off at the airport on Friday for his trip to New York, left worried messages for him when she did not hear from anything.
The 48-year-old said: 'Now that he’s dead, what can I do? The memories that I’ll keep is the man that I know that loved me.
'He was the funniest, kindest, most loving person you would ever meet.'
Other guests reported seeing the couple several hours before the murders with their arms around one another.
One patron said they saw Ms Bennett holding a bottle of champagne in a celebratory manner.
VIDEO: Watch victim Wayne Hamilton's song Nah Lef Joe here...
Images & Videos: OnLine
A music promoter allegedly stalked his ex and her new lover for months before shooting them both in the head outside a motel.
Joseph Kernizan is suspected of gunning down Tracy Bennett and her reggae star boyfriend Wayne Hamilton as they left a New York motel following a steamy tryst.
Ms Bennett, 38, was heard begging for her life in the Bronx car park before she and Mr Hamilton were murdered, witnesses said.
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| Warning sign: Reggaeton singer Mr Hamilton, 50, had recorded a song called Nah Lef Joe in which he complained about his lover not leaving her ex-partner |
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| Warning sign: Reggaeton singer Mr Hamilton, 50, had recorded a song called Nah Lef Joe in which he complained about his lover not leaving her ex-partner |
Mr Hamilton, also known as Captain Barkey, had apparently previously taunted his lover's former partner in a song called Nah Lef Joe.
The track, released in 2010, is about about having sex with a woman who has not left her partner, with the chorus running, 'She tell me she nah lef Joe.'
Friends said the song was aimed at Kernizan, 42, who police are hunting in connection with Saturday's double murder outside the Holiday Motel.
'It’s a song about her not leaving Joe,' said Ms Bennett’s friend Bella, who declined to give her last name. 'He was begging her to leave Joe for a long time.'
Mr Hamilton, 50, had repeatedly been warned by friends to end the affair because Kernizan was 'a serious man,' dancehall artist Wickerman told Jamaican entertainment news site One876Entertainment.
Hamilton’s grieving music partner, David 'Wickerman' Taylor, told the New York Post that Kernizan had been stalking Mr Hamilton for months.
'It was August when he told me that this man in New York was following him,' Mr Taylor said in an emotional interview from Jamaica.
'Barkey said the man trailed him, he was stalking him. And he tried to run him down, off the road.
'I said, "You’ve got to be careful." I warned him, "You don’t know what this guy will do."
'We figured he had a tracking device on her.
'That was Barkey’s only enemy. Everyone loved him. He was not a troublemaker.'
Police believe Kernizan was waiting when Ms Bennett and Mr Hamilton emerged from the Holiday Motel at around 3.10am and were about to drive away.
Ms Bennett screamed: 'Don't do it! Don't do it!' before her jilted boyfriend allegedly fired more than two dozen bullets at the defenceless pair.
Mr Hamilton was shot several times in the back of the head as he tried to run away, while Ms Bennett was shot in the head as she stood beside a Toyota Camry with the motor running.
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| Tracy Bennett |
Witnesses who were celebrating a birthday in a room upstairs said they overheard four or five gunshots, 1010 WINS reported, and ran to see what was happening.
'I looked out my window and saw a lady standing there,' said party guest Ricky Gugliotta.
She was begging him not to shoot her, but then he shot her twice and she went down.'
Both were pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services, according to the New York Daily News.
Kernizan fled the scene in a blue or green sedan, sources said.
Motel guest Augustine Mawugbe, 45, said he was asleep in his room when he heard gunshots.
He said he looked outside and saw a tall man in a brown polo shirt firing a pistol.
He said the man fired about ten times, and then got into a light green Toyota Camry or Ford Taurus and drove away at speed.
Ms Bennett had been dating Ms Hamilton for five years, friends said, but had struggled to leave Kernizan, the father of two of her three children, a 12-year-old girl and seven-year-old boy.
Her oldest child, daughter Dajahnae, 18, rushed home from the University of Baltimore after learning her mother was dead.
'He was so obsessed with her,' said her friend Bella.
The 38-year-old even took out an order of protection against the music promoter, making him even more enraged, said others.
Her neighbours said they often heard her and Kernizan, nicknamed 'Country', screaming at each other and police were regularly called to their tidy two-storey home.
'We always heard them fighting,' said Carolina Manzano.
Neighbours described Ms Bennett as a sweet woman who was seen leaving her house every morning for her job as a nurse at Winthrop University Hospital, while Kernizan stayed out late and often returned in flashy cars.
Tenants at a house he owned in Brooklyn said he also owned a nearby barbershop, opened a club and owned four different cars.
Mr Hamilton's friends said he was originally from Jamaica but was now living in Milwaukee with his wife Mavis, who knew nothing about his affair with Ms Bennett.
‘I saw him last night at Memories playing dominoes,’ said Oneil Taylor, referring to a Bronx nightclub.
Another friend, an shuttle driver, said he had picked up Mr Hamilton - best known for his 1996 hit Go Go Wine - on Friday from the airport and brought him to the Fenton Avenue club.
Mrs Hamilton, who had dropped him off at the airport on Friday for his trip to New York, left worried messages for him when she did not hear from anything.
The 48-year-old said: 'Now that he’s dead, what can I do? The memories that I’ll keep is the man that I know that loved me.
'He was the funniest, kindest, most loving person you would ever meet.'
Other guests reported seeing the couple several hours before the murders with their arms around one another.
One patron said they saw Ms Bennett holding a bottle of champagne in a celebratory manner.
VIDEO: Watch victim Wayne Hamilton's song Nah Lef Joe here...
I really cannot comment on the situation given a sequence of events perhaps that took place prior to the incident; nevertheless, it is a sad situation for the parties involved and I just want to extend my deepest sympathy to families and friends.
ReplyDeletegood hes dead dat dutty haitian coward,he killed himself in miami,what a loser
ReplyDeleteGo fuck yourself
DeleteLet this be a lesson to all men and women--be careful and cognizant of the people you choose to make your partner and progenitor of your children. Joseph was absolutely wrong in what he did but do not vilify him because this woman, Tracey, was an absolute abomination to women and the reason why men are so distrustful of men. He took her in when she had an illegitimate child, paid for her nursing degree, a home and numerous cars. He had so many properties he purchased and put many of them under her name. When he discovered her infidelities, he demanded that she relinquish his properties and access to his bank accounts, she in turn refused and used much of the money on her exploits with this Wayne fellow. Joseph even gave her money to pay for plastic surgery and she in turned used it on her lover. Let's not mention that she was being sued by her very own daughter for abandonment and neglect. Karma is so real, and when you betray people and use them when they have only done right by you, what you get in return is what you sowed. I mean, how likely is that a man, a Haitian man at that, would take a woman in with a child that wasn't his? I cannot have sympathy for such an unscrupulous woman, who went around cavorting with a married man while neglecting her very own children, whom I may mention Joseph was taking care of--his rage obviously manifested in a violent way and unfortunately everyone lost. Was it really worth it? Don't bite the hand that feeds you, moreover don't take what isn't rightfully yours. If only people knew the real story behind this tangled love triangle they would understand that Joe did not kill out of jealously but out of betrayal. He had given her many chances to do right and give him back his properties and money, and her brazen philandering with HIS own hard-earned money is enough to send even the most placid and indifferent person into a fit of unadulterated rage. RIP Joe
ReplyDeleteWow, that was very deep and very true!!!! Rip Joe, people cram to understand that there are three sides to a story...her side, his side, and the truth. In this case, hell has no fury like a man scorned, how dare he make a song taunting that man? Uuuhgggg
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post anonymous and grace. I feel sorry for Joe Country he was a good man.he was the real victim.
ReplyDelete