A Manhattan paralegal was fatally stabbed by his girlfriend inside his Bronx apartment, police said Tuesday.
Dwayne Valentine, 40, was stabbed in the chest at his home on Grand Ave. near W. 190th St. at about 11:05 p.m. Monday, cops said. He died at the scene.
“Dwayne was a remarkable young man, smart, very quiet and to himself. He was a loner but people liked him, and he didn’t deserve this,” his mother, Sharon Smith, told the Daily News. “Hopefully, we get to find out the details, but right now we don’t know.”
Cops took Valentine’s girlfriend, Cynthia Phillips, 37, into custody for questioning following the horrific incident. She was charged Tuesday afternoon with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. She has no criminal history, police said.
Phillips’ arraignment in Bronx Criminal Court was pending Tuesday evening.
Phillips told police that Valentine went out to buy cigarettes and came back with a stab wound. She later admitted to stabbing him herself after an argument, according to police sources.
Two children were inside the apartment where the stabbing occurred. They were put into the care of the Administration for Children’s Services following the incident, family and sources said.
Valentine was a father of three — two girls and a boy — and was known as a “quiet” and “hardworking” paralegal who worked for a year and a half at the law firm, Gallo Vitucci Klar, in Manhattan, family members said. He previously worked at Bloomberg and specialized in personal injury paralegal work.
“He was smart beyond measure,” Smith recounted. “He was one of the smartest people I know, well spoken — and he was just so smart.”
Valentine moved into the newly constructed building with two of his young children last year, neighbors said.
“We talked every day but Dwayne was a very private person. He did not express what was going on at his household,” Smith said.
One neighbor recalled hearing an argument coming from inside the victim’s fifth-floor apartment late Monday.
“They were arguing. She was angry that he was friendly with other women in the building,” said the neighbor, who didn’t want to be named, adding: “It was in front of the kids, both of the kids were in the apartment.”
Another neighbor, King Vincent Cowart, saw the victim smoking a cigarette outside just hours before the killing.
“I was going to ask him for one because I didn’t have any, but then I changed my mind,” Cowart said. “He was outside and I was gonna go sit with him, but I was like I’m gonna just go on ahead because I was tired from working out.”
“I’m devastated,” he added. “He was a nice guy. I’m telling you, he really was. I considered him as a new friend. He was cool. He liked his rap. He’d be out here rapping to the music. When it’s hot, like if it was hot like right now, he would be out here sitting, down with his music, having a cigarette, maybe smoke a joint.”
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