The suspect accused of fatally stabbing his girlfriend's nephew in the East Village earlier this month has been arrested. Carl Knox, 47, allegedly stabbed 31-year-old Corey Capers just before 3 a.m. in front of 737 East 5th Street on June 9th. According to relatives, Capers had been trying to protect his aunt, who was allegedly being beaten up by Knox. “He died defending somebody whom he truly loves,” his fiancée Amy told the Times.
Knox, also known as Abdul Hakim, has been charged with second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and possession of a criminal weapon. Knox has 26 prior arrests, and three separate stints in state prison on attempted assault, weapons possession and attempted rape. After the attempted assault in 2005, Knox told the parole board he planned to stay out of trouble: “You’re looking at an old man now,” he said, then all of 40. “My only thing I say is I don’t want to die in prison. I don’t want to become a jailbird for life.”
Capers, who worked as a handyman, had a 6-year-old son and "was like a father to [his fiancées's] four daughters." “He was a good dude, was always with his kids,” a friend told CBS. “Always with his kids. That’s all I would see him with, with his kids. I never saw him get into any trouble. If anybody needed help, he was always there to help. It’s too bad that it turned out to be like this.”
