Warrant issued for suspect in fatal 2019 East Side stabbing

Staff Writer
Updated ·1 min read
Columbus police investigate the scene of a stabbing on April 22, 2019, outside a convenience store at Livingston Plaza on the 3900 block of East Livingston Ave. on the East Side. The victim, 19-year-old Kyle William Stewart, of Pataskala, was transported in critical condition to OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where he later died at 3 a.m. on April 23, 2019. [Jim Woods/Dispatch file photo]]

An East Side man is being sought by Columbus police homicide detectives in connection with the stabbing death of another man whom authorities say was defending his girlfriend from an unprovoked assault outside a convenience store last year.

Ernest D. Murphy, 32, a resident of an apartment complex on the 3500 block of Rand Court, is charged with murder, Columbus police said Friday night.

The stabbing occurred just before 8:15 p.m. April 22, 2019, in the parking lot outside the Shop n Go carryout at 3951 E. Livingston Ave., as Kyle William Stewart, 29, of Pataskala, and his girlfriend left the store.

When someone assaulted his girlfriend and Stewart stepped in, the assailant stabbed Stewart and fled, police say. Police officers and city fire medics, responding to 911 calls, found Stewart lying in the parking lot.

He died about 3 a.m. the next day at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.

According to Columbus police and Franklin County jail inmate records, Murphy was not in custody or at the lockup as of late Friday night.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Columbus police homicide unit at 614-645-4730 or Central Ohio Crimestoppers at 614-461-TIPS (8477).

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Warrant issued for suspect in fatal 2019 East Side stabbing