18°
Clarence S. Stokes, 42, got into an argument with the victims over what would be the terms of his stay before stabbing Stanley Gunter and Latrice Avery around 8 p.m. Wednesday, a law enforcement investigator with knowledge of the incident told Daily Voice.
Gunter, a 67-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, was pronounced dead in a living room on the second floor of the Fairmount Avenue home after he'd been stabbed in the torso, responders said.
Doorbell video with audio shows Avery, 44, being stabbed repeatedly on the porch they said. She was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 9:13 p.m.
Police responding to a 911 call captured Stokes after they found him "walking down the street with blood on his clothing," Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said.
Avery, who was originally from Paterson, owned the home -- four doors down from Fairmount Elementary School -- where she lived with Gunter, an Englewood native. She listed both on social media as engaged in December 2015.
Stokes, whose most recent addresses were in Paterson and Clifton, has a criminal past that has included prison time. Records show convictions dating back nearly 20 years for burglary, drug possession and criminal sexual contact.
He was being held Thursday in the Bergen County Jail, charged with two counts each of murder and weapons possession, pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
The homicide squad of the Bergen County prosecutor's Major Crimes Unit was investigating with Hackensack police. The Bergen County Sheriff's Office Bureau of Criminal Identification collected evidence at the home. The county medical examiner also responded.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Franklin Township and receive free news updates.
