Christopher Membreno said he hadn’t showered or slept in the five days since being arrested for the murder of Manos Ikonomidis. The 24-year-old spoke with The New York Daily News from Rikers Island and while sobbing admits he mad a rash decision to defend his girlfriend’s honor after she told him she’d been raped, only to later learn she lied.
“I threw my life away for a f—ing lie? My life is over because of a f—ing lie?” Membreno said.
Last week the outlet published a story about a threesome in Brooklyn’s Park Slop neighborhood gone terrible awry. Ikonomidis, Membreno’s girlfriend and 20-year-old Jack Doherty decided to engage in the sexual tryst. Membreno’s girlfriend reportedly grew angry when one of the men began recording. She then demanded Doherty drive her back to her Staten Island home leaving Ikonomidis in the apartment alone.
It’s reported when she got home she told Membreno she was raped. He and few friends later saw Ikonomidis leaving the apartment, and with bats and knives beat and stabbed him leaving him to die in a pool of his own blood. “I just wanted some f—ing justice,” Membreno said from prison. “I wanted to hold him until the police got there.”
Membreno, a father to a 5-month-old baby girl, says he was high at the time and doesn’t remember many details of the fatal encounter, but does maintain Ikonomidis was fighting him. “I had to defend myself. I had to fight back,” Membreno said.
Police however say the evidence doesn’t corroborate that story. One of Membreno’s friends who participated in the murder, Gabriel Dos Santos, 24, is also being held at Riker’s Island. Santos was charged with murder, weapons possession, gang assault and burglary.
surprisingly, Membreno says he has no ill will towards his girlfriend. “I still love her even though she set me up,” he said. “I don’t know why I still love her. I just want some answers.”