Owner of Comedy Club, Nanny Are Killed in NJ Home: Reports

Owner of Comedy Club, Nanny Are Killed in NJ Home: Reports
Stock photo of police tape. (Carl Ballou/Shutterstock)
Jack Phillips
8/4/2019
Updated:
8/4/2019

The body of a New York comedy club owner and his nanny were found dead in his New Jersey home on Aug. 3, according to news reports.

David Kimowitz, 40, and Karen Bermudez-Rodriguez, 26, died early on Saturday, officials said. Joseph Porter, of Elizabeth, N.J., who was dating Bermudez-Rodriguez, was charged with two counts of murder, two weapons charges and criminal restraint, reported NJ.com.
Kimowitz, a father of two young girls, is an owner of The Stand Comedy Club in New York City in Union Square, according to the New York Post. The venue has featured comedians Tracy Morgan, Dave Chappelle, Damon Wayans, and more.

Police were called to a home on Walton Road in Maplewood at around 6 a.m. after a jogger saw a woman being attacked on the front lawn.

According to the Post, Bermudez-Rodriguez was found in the street with stab wounds, and she also appeared to have attempted to run from her assailant.

Officials said she was taken to Beth Israel Medical Center and later died.

Kimowitz was found unresponsive inside the home. He was pronounced dead at the said, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office in the Post’s report.

“The brother was sitting right there in front of that tree with his head in hands, rocking … he was in shock. The only he kept saying was, ‘My brother lives there, my brother lives there,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed neighbor as saying.

Neighbors of the family said the daughters were seen playing outside with Bermudez-Rodriguez, the New York Times reported.

“They have a little balcony that they would be playing out there with their kids,” Andrew De la Torre told the Times. “They’d have family friends over. Really nice people.”

One neighbor told that Post that Porter was known to visit the nanny outside in his car near the house.

Said one, “A couple of people are saying they saw him pacing up and down the street the day before. He was doing the same thing last week. A couple of the nannies were having a party the night before it happened and he was lurking in the wood off to the right.”

On social media, Kimowitz was mourned.

A LinkedIn page for Kimowitz stated that he received a bachelor’s degree in history from New York’s Columbia University in 2002 and was involved in several comedy ventures.

Other details about the case were not disclosed.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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