(COED) Jerry Thompson, a man in Hartford, Connecticut, has been arrested and charged with using a samurai sword to decapitate his landlord, Victor King, over a rent dispute, according to a report from the Hartford Courant.
Thompson refused to say anything during a court appearance and claimed that he was a sovereign citizen, and was then ordered to be held on $2 million bail. King had reportedly told authorities that Thompson had been threatening him and swinging a sword at him the day before his death.
Thompson had previous convictions for assault and robbery.
From the report:
According to the warrant for Thompson’s arrest, drafted by Hartford detectives, he was identified as a suspect by friends of victim Victor King, who had rented a room to Thompson inside his Asylum Avenue home. The two men had had a dispute about Thompson not paying rent, according to the warrant, and Thompson threatened King with a samurai sword.
On Sunday, friends of King called police to say they could not reach him.
Sunday afternoon, police and firefighters forced their way into King’s home and found a lot of blood and King’s badly slashed body covered in bedding.