Nyack Man Indicted In Fatal Stabbing

A 27-year-old Nyack man was arraigned today in Rockland County Court in New City on an indictment charging him with murder in the June 25 stabbing death of a 33-year-old Nyack man.

John Desir of 132 Third Ave., Nyack, is being held in the Rockland County Correctional Facility in New City, with his bail now set at $250,000, pending a Sept. 14 court conference.

Desir is accused of second-degree murder in the death of Wykeme Corker of Nyack in a 3 a.m. fight on Franklin Street in Nyack. Desir is accused of stabbing Corker in the neck with a sharp object. Wykeme was taken by taxi to Nyack Hospital, where he died a short time after his arrival.

Corker's death stunned members of the community and a makeshift memorial to him was quickly erected on a Franklin Street corner in the hours after his death. Corker graduated in 1997 and played on the football team while he was a student. However, at the time of his death, Corker had only been out of state prison for a short time.

In 1999, Corker stabbed a Spring Valley man in the stomach and slashed his hand, almost severing his thumb. The incident took place in front of a now-defunct bar in Nyack, nearby the place Corker was fatally stabbed over ten years later. In 2000, Corker was sentenced to 12-and-a-half years in state prison for the stabbing; he was found guilty of felonious assault, but acquitted of an attempted murder charge.