Mourners filled an East Flatbush church Friday to bid a last goodbye to the 47-year-old woman killed by her ex-husband, according to the criminal complaint against him, allegedly in a fit of jealous rage after he spotted a hickey on her neck.
More than 100 people gathered at Triumphant Deliverance Church of God International on Avenue D near E. 52nd St. to pray, sing and dance in memory of Antoinette Stewart. She lay in a blue casket dressed in white and wearing silver gloves, a floral arrangement including sunflowers resting on top.
Stewart was stabbed by Lewis Gordon, 45, just days before Christmas in the Canarsie home they still shared, according to authorities. Their 15-year-old son, Brandon Stewart, was injured in the attack and fled the horrific scene by jumping out of his bedroom window.
Gordon was arrested the day after the slaying and charged with murdering his ex-wife. He confessed to the killing, according to the criminal complaint against him.
Brandon’s heartfelt tribute to his mother was filled with pauses as he struggled to maintain his composure. His words caused other mourners to join him in crying, tears running down their faces as they listened.
“She always supported me however she could,” he said. “She was someone I could talk to. You know, whenever I had a problem … at school or a situation, I could always talk to her…. I’m just gonna say it again: I just, I love you, Ma. I love you. I will never forget you,” the teen choked out before breaking down.
Stewart’s brother, Alex Goodwin, remembered how his sister, who worked full time as a home health aide, plus part time as a nanny and was putting herself through school to become a registered nurse, had taught him responsibility.
“She was like a mother. She took care of me when my mom came here to America to get herself situated,” Goodwin told the crowd. “She taught me how to cook… Today, I am a man, and most of the stuff is still sticking with me. I have four kids of my own and I teach them the same stuff that my sister taught me.”
Breanna Gordon, one of the victim’s two daughters, said she and her mother had a set schedule for regular phone conversations. She had been looking forward to a Christmas Day call, which never came.
“My Mom, she was always thinking about all of us. It doesn’t matter where we were, she was always thinking about us, always worrying about me,” she said, trying to reckon with what her father had done to her mother. “It’s a lot to just go from having two people to zero people.”
Vinette Hudson, Stewart’s mother, was heartbroken but took solace in imagining her daughter with a smile on her face.
“When I heard the news…. ‘No no no no no,’ I couldn’t stop saying no,” she said. “But one thing I know, after that happened I feel peace come over me, so I know that she’s with the Lord.”
After the Dec. 22 murder, Brandon told the Daily News about the terrifying ordeal he had witnessed and tried to stop, which he said was sparked by his father’s tirade over the bruise on his mother’s neck. Despite no longer being married and dating other people, Stewart and Gordon still lived together to raise the teen and save money, family members said.
Brandon said he was showering inside his family’s home at E. 81st St. near Flatlands Ave. around 9:25 p.m. that fateful night when he heard screaming from his mother’s bedroom and ran to see what was going on.
“I tried to open the door, but the door was locked, so I busted down the door and I saw my dad strangling my mom,” the teen said.
After his son burst into the room, Gordon turned to the boy and revealed the excuse for his violent outburst, Brandon said.
“My dad told my mom to tell me what she did — and my mom, she turned to me and she was crying,” the boy said. “He said that her boyfriend gave her a hickey and that’s one of the reasons why he was so mad at her.
“That’s when he picked up the knife from the kitchen and he started to attack my mom,” Brandon said. “I tried to get him off of her, which caused me to have injuries on my fingers.”
The couple married around 20 years ago and emigrated from Jamaica to Brooklyn shortly before separating due to Gordon’s repeated infidelities, family said.
Although Gordon continued to pursue his own romances following the end of their marriage, he could not abide his ex-wife seeing other men and began stalking her in the weeks preceding the murder, their son said.
“A few weeks ago [Antoinette] was talking to my mom and she said he kept following her everywhere,” Goodwin told The News after the killing. “He had like an obsessive mentality, and that’s what led him to this.”
Among the photographs of Stewart that filled the pages of the funeral program, along with the details of her education and recollection of her talents for cooking and sewing, was a stark message written in a purple banner — “Help! Stop Domestic Violence.”
Donations were collected at the service for Brandon, who will be raised by Goodwin in Florida. Each of the church’s clergy members hugged Brandon, and the congregants raised their hands toward him in a show of support.
“It’s by the grace of God that he’s here with us today,” Pastor JG Smith said of the teen.