Police accuse a man of using a samurai sword to decapitate his landlord after a disagreement escalated last weekend inside a Hartford, Connecticut, home where the suspect had been renting a room.
Jerry David Thompson, 42, who has previous convictions for assault and robbery, refused to enter a plea at his arraignment Tuesday. He also declined to speak with a public defender and investigators about the crime, claiming in documents that he is a sovereign citizen and not subject to U.S. law, the Hartford Courant reported.
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Lacking an attorney, Thompson was ordered jailed on a $2 million bond, and Judge Ann Lynch scheduled his next court appearance for Aug. 18.
The victim, Victor King, was 64 years old and worked for Travelers Insurance for more than 20 years before retiring to become a full-time professional bridge player. He had an elite ranking and won a national championship in 2016, according to the Courant.
“He was very good at it. Very good at teaching others to play it. Just a kind and gentle person whose first love was bridge,” the victim’s cousin Jim Banks told the Courant.
He called King “one of the good guys — one that would never hurt a soul. One that would always reach out and help others. He was pleasant as can be. Always seemed to be happy. He was just a joy to be around.”
King lived quietly at his Asylum Avenue home, where Thompson had only recently moved into a vacant bedroom, according to neighbors.
An arrest warrant for Thompson states that King confronted the suspect on Saturday about not paying his rent on time. In response, Thompson allegedly grabbed the sword and advanced toward King. Disturbed by the incident, King went to police the same day to report it.
By Sunday afternoon, King’s friends ― now aware of the situation — were frantically calling police, saying they couldn’t reach him.
Police and firefighters later forced their way inside the home and walked into a bloody scene — King had been slashed to death and decapitated, his body left covered in his own bedding.
The victim’s friends identified Thompson as the man who had moved in with King at the residence.
Police quickly caught up to Thompson’s Jeep nearby and took him into custody.
During questioning, Thompson refused to speak but wrote a note to interrogators that said: “paper in glove compart in Jeep is all you need,” the Courant reported. There, police found paperwork that Thompson apparently drew up himself, proclaiming his immunity as a sovereign citizen.
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