New Tenant Killed by Landlord for Complaining About Heating, Cops Say

A landlord in Kansas City, Missouri has been accused of stabbing a tenant more than 30 times after he was alerted to heat problems by a couple who had asked if they could use a space heater to warm their chilly new rental.

Gordon McBeth, 44, entered a not guilty plea on Monday after Clay County prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of 28-year-old Darryl Gilland on Friday afternoon.

According to court documents obtained by the Kansas City Star, McBeth allegedly stabbed Gilland more than 30 times on Friday after Gilland’s girlfriend messaged the landlord alerting him that the heat wasn’t working in their new home.

Samantha Pohlman said that she and Gilland, her boyfriend of five years, had only moved into the home a week before.

“At first, the guy was perfectly nice about it,” she told KCTV. “He was like, ‘yeah I’ll come over and we’ll do that’ and then just out of nowhere he completely flipped and acted like we were asking too much and being a complete burden.”

According to court documents, Pohlman told detectives that McBeth pulled a long knife from a sheath on his belt and began stabbing her boyfriend for no apparent reason.

“The guy said, ‘If that’s not good enough, I will kill you,’ and then he pulled out a knife and started stabbing him,” Pohlman told FOX4 KC, adding that her boyfriend died in her arms. “I pet his head and I told him it was going to be OK and the ambulance was coming and that I loved him.”

Pohlman said she and Gilland met online and he was “a sweet, nervous gentleman from the beginning.”

According to court documents, detectives said that video surveillance footage from a house in the neighborhood appeared to show McBeth arriving at the residence at around 3:30 p.m., and that a knife was also later recovered at the scene.

Prosecutors said that one of the couple’s new neighbors told responding officers that he heard “horrific screaming” that appeared to be coming from the couple’s home. When the neighbor arrived at the scene he saw the attacker “on top” of his victim, grasping a black-handled knife with both hands and repeatedly stabbing him.

A second neighbor allegedly brandished a gun at McBeth, holding him at the scene until authorities arrived, court documents state.

When emergency personnel arrived, they found Gilland with dozens of stab wounds and lacerations on his chest, arms, back and left thigh. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to court documents.

McBeth was taken into custody and is being held at Clay County Detention Center where his bond is set at $1 million.

A GoFundMe page was organized to help send Gilland’s body to his home state of Indiana to be buried beside his grandparents.