Landlord accused of murdering tenant
COURTHOUSE — A landlord embroiled in an ongoing dispute with a tenant allegedly sneaked into the apartment the Abington man was renting and killed him last month.
On Wednesday, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman charged 44-year-old Larry Reese with second- and third-degree murder and abuse of corpse after he admitted hitting Louis Malachowsky in the head with an electricians’ insulator tool, according to authorities.
The tenant and landlord’s contentious relationship came to a head over money matters, police report.
“The victim was continually trying to get money from his landlord,” Ferman said. “There was clearly some shenanigans with respect to what the (tenant) was doing to the landlord.”
Reese, who is from Lester, Delaware County, reportedly admitted to detectives that he got angry with Malachowsky after receiving an e-mail from him.
“It was that (e-mail message) that apparently set the defendant off,” the DA said.
In the early morning on April 30, the landlord entered the man’s apartment carrying the tool he used in his work as an electrician for SEPTA, according to court papers.
Once inside the apartment, the landlord found the renter asleep on the couch. When the man awoke and saw Reese, he threatened to call police. He allegedly told investigators that he did not recall what happened next, but admitted, “I must have” hit the victim, reports indicate.
According to Reese, when he left the apartment, Malachowsky was “on the couch and mumbling.” The tenant was set to move out in May.
Prosecutors believe the landlord went to the apartment to boot the tenant out.
“It was clear to us that he went there to get the guy out (of the residence),” Ferman said.
Reese allegedly returned to the apartment a day or two after the incident and found Malachowsky dead on the sofa.
“At this time, (Reese) tied him up, wrapped him up in a blanket and put him in a trash can,” Ferman alleged, then drove to the Philadelphia to dump the corpse.
On Friday evening, May 1, Malachowsky’s body was discovered in a vacant lot at 2200 E. Butler Street in the Frankford section of the city.
An autopsy performed by the Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the man died as a result of a being hit on the head with a blunt instrument; however the injuries seemed minor and did not apparently kill the man right away. Ferman said the injury didn’t warrant a first-degree murder charge, the D.A. said.
After learning from the Medical Examiner’s that the victim may have been living in Abington, Detectives from the Montgomery County Detective Bureau and the Abington Police Department began a joint investigation.
Reese and Malachowsky had been friends in the run up to the death, but the relationship had soured recently, according to investigators.
District Judge Joseph H. Dougherty arraigned Reese Wednesday and remanded him without bail to Montgomery County Correctional Facility.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 27 at 10 a.m. in district court.
Prosecutors James Zoll and Frank Nero will handle the case.
No comments:
Post a Comment