Connecticut Man Decapitates Landlord Over Rental Dispute
Written by SOURCE on August 1, 2020
A man was arrested by Hartford, Connecticut police after he cut off his landlord’s head with a sword, CNN reports.
Victor King called the police last Saturday claiming that his roommate, Jerry Thompson, was “waving a sword at him in a threatening and terrorizing manner.” Per the arrest warrant, King and Thompson were having an argument over a rent dispute when things turned violent. King gave the police Thompson’s number during his call in hopes to settle the dispute, but it is unclear is the police contacted Thompson.
The following day, authorities received two separate calls a neighbor and one of King’s friends who were concerned about King’s safety. This prompted the police to respond to the scene. When they arrived, police found King’s decapitated body on the floor “covered by numerous articles of bedding.” A medical examiner claimed that King’s injuries were consistent with “a large edged weapon,” explaining that the “lacerations to the landlord’s right arm, upper chest, and across the neck causing decapitation.”
Police then reviewed the surveillance video which showed Thompson carrying a “long skinny white object in his right hand” into the building on Saturday before exiting the home with the same object 30 minutes later. Police used this footage along with King’s previous call as cause to arrest Thompson for the murder.
Upon his arrest, Thompson refused to speak to the police. Yet he did write “paper in glove compart in Jeep is all you need” on a sheet of paper and gave it to detectives. This paperwork claimed that Thompson identifies as a “sovereign citizen” or someone who “believes he is not subject to any statutes and interprets the laws in their own way.”
Thompson was arraigned in the Hartford Superior Court on Tuesday and has refused to speak to a public defender. He has been officially charged with murder and is being detained on a $2 million bond. The amount of rent Thompson owed as well as his employment status at the time of the murder is still unknown.
