A Homeless Man His Neighbors Fed and Clothed for Years Was Stabbed to Death Beside the LIE. His Accused Killer Had Never Been Arrested Before.
Timothy Stark, 32, was a fixture along the Long Island Expressway’s north service road in Medford — the kind of familiar face a nearby DMV office had quietly fed and clothed for years. On Monday afternoon, July 20, 2026, police say a 20-year-old chased him down, stabbed him in the back, and left his body on the LIE’s South Service Road.
Suffolk County Police charged Joseph Norton, of neighboring Manorville, with second-degree murder. Prosecutors told a Central Islip courtroom that Norton pursued Stark across three intersections with a six-inch switchblade, drove his head into the pavement, then stabbed him through the lung and heart. Norton fled by car and was in handcuffs a short time later.
What prosecutors have not alleged is a prior record. Norton was arraigned the next day and remanded without bail — not released pending a hearing, not out on some earlier case. He is presumed innocent of the murder charge itself, and on the record reviewed for this story, there is no earlier arrest, no earlier bail decision, and no earlier release to examine.
- 32 — Timothy Stark's age — a familiar presence on the LIE's service road for years, per News 12 Long Island and Daily Voice
- 6-inch switchblade — the weapon prosecutors say Norton used to chase Stark across three intersections — Patch, Greater Long Island
- Remanded, no bail — Norton's outcome at arraignment, Tuesday, July 21, 2026, First District Court, Central Islip — LongIsland.com
- Zero — prior arrests for Joseph Norton found in the public record reviewed for this story
Police say the confrontation began sometime before 3:30 p.m. Monday on Express Drive South at Route 112, a commercial stretch of Medford wedged against the Long Island Expressway. Prosecutors described Norton as relentless — chasing Stark across three wide intersections and onto the expressway’s south service road, where, they said, Stark could no longer get away from the blade. Norton allegedly slammed Stark’s head into the pavement before stabbing him, piercing his lung and heart. Officers and paramedics found Stark on the South Service Road; he was rushed to NYU Langone Hospital – Suffolk in Patchogue, where he was pronounced dead. Access to the LIE’s Exit 64 for Route 112 was closed for several hours while investigators worked the scene. Police say there were many witnesses and two separate dashcam recordings of the attack.
Norton fled in a vehicle but didn’t get far. Suffolk County patrol officers located and arrested him a short time later at the intersection of Yaphank Avenue and Horseblock Road in Yaphank. The Suffolk County Police Homicide Squad, with Sixth Squad detectives assisting, built the case that led to a second-degree murder charge under New York Penal Law 125.25 — the statute that governs intentional killings statewide.
People who passed that stretch of service road for years knew Stark by sight, if not always by name. Tanika Quashie, who works at a nearby DMV office, told News 12 Long Island that she and her coworkers had looked after him — food, clothing, basic kindness — for a long time. “I’m just at a loss for words that somebody so kind, didn’t bother anybody, somebody so innocent,” she said. Days after the killing, she returned to the spot with candles and a hand-lettered poster, part of a small memorial that grew where Stark used to sit. “He was somebody,” she said, “and I want the world to know that.”
Jake Sherack, who brought his 7-year-old son by regularly, remembered Stark the same way. “He was always good to us,” Sherack said. “One of my biggest prides was me and my son going to feed him.” None of that made the news before Monday. It shouldn’t have taken his death to make it news now.
Norton was held overnight and arraigned Tuesday, July 21, at First District Court in Central Islip. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded without bail, according to online court records — meaning no dollar figure, no bond, no release condition of any kind was set. His attorney, Peter H. Mayer of Hauppauge, pushed back on the case outside court: the murder charge, he said, is “not a conviction,” and his client “should be presumed innocent” like anyone else facing an accusation. That presumption holds regardless of how a case is covered, and it applies to Norton here.
“These charges are not convictions.”
Peter H. Mayer · Attorney for Joseph Norton
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond “Ray” Tierney (R) — his office is prosecuting the case. As of this writing it has issued no statement specific to Stark’s killing, and none is invented here. Tierney campaigned in 2021 on toughening the county’s posture toward New York’s 2019 bail-reform law, though his record in office has been more measured on the issue than some Republican colleagues elsewhere on Long Island.
Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine (R) and Brookhaven Town Supervisor Dan Panico (R) — the county and town that include Medford and the LIE corridor where Stark lived and died.
Cases like this one usually invite an obvious accountability question: was the person charged out on bail, parole, or some earlier release when it happened? It’s worth asking, and worth answering honestly even when the answer complicates the story. In Norton’s case, it doesn’t hold up. No news outlet, court record, or law-enforcement statement reviewed for this piece documents any prior arrest, conviction, probation term, or pretrial release for Joseph Norton. He was not out on bail. He was not on parole. He was, per his own arraignment, remanded without bail the first time a judge is known to have seen his name attached to a violent charge. If that record changes, this page will be updated — but as of publication, there is no earlier decision by any prosecutor, judge, or parole officer to hold accountable for Monday’s killing.
What is genuinely documented is the system Stark lived inside of. Long Island’s homeless count topped 4,500 people across Nassau and Suffolk counties in the 2025 point-in-time survey — a 13% jump from 2024 and the highest total since counting began in 2007, according to the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless. Suffolk County alone carries roughly two-thirds of both the sheltered and unsheltered population on Long Island. “Most families that entered homelessness during this time did so despite working, as rental costs outpaced wages,” said Mike Giuffrida, the coalition’s associate director. Addressing those same numbers in January, County Executive Romaine said “no person should go homeless or hungry.” Stark’s years on that service road, cared for informally by DMV clerks and passersby rather than any formal outreach program, is the more durable failure this case actually documents.
Timothy Stark was killed steps from where he’d sat for years, allegedly by a 20-year-old with no prior arrest on record and no earlier release decision behind him. Joseph Norton is charged, not convicted, and was held without bail from his first court appearance — a fact that undercuts, rather than confirms, the repeat-offender story this case might have seemed to promise. What the record does confirm is a Long Island homelessness count at a two-decade high, and a man who relied on his neighbors long before he ever needed the state.
