By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The man police suspect of hacking his ex-wife to death in a Midtown hair salon has a history of violent crime, records show.
While robbing the Late Nite Deli on Myrtle Avenue in Queens in 1999, Michael Kenny pointed a sawed-off shotgun at the clerk and demanded cigarettes, a cigar box and cash from the register, according to a criminal complaint.
Kenny, 42, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty. He has at least one other robbery conviction, and received a five years probationary sentence in 1990.
While on parole last year, he was arrested for violating an order of protection against his ex-wife, Denise Kenny, who was murdered on Thursday. He was accused of sending threatending messages.
"Just remember what I tell you if you ever leave me, the things I could do to you," was a Jan. 11, 2010 message, according to the complaint.
He also text-messaged her incessantly. "Don't take me for a fool; I'm looking at you; Why did you move so close to our old home?" the eerie message read.
Denise Kenny was found Thursday slumped on the toilet in the upstair's bathroom of D'Galina's Salon Spa, on West 35th Street, where she worked as a hair stylist. She had been stabbed multiple times.
When approached by DNAinfo on Friday, her Rockaway Park landlord, Tom Chung, said she was a "very nice lady" who "kept to herself."
"What an horrific thing," Chung added.
Police are still searching for Kenny who has been on the run for more than 24 hours.
With reporting by Ben Fractenberg.
