The fifth person who hung out at the home where three friends were found dead hours after watching a Kansas City Chiefs game broke his silence, vehemently denying the theories that he was the last person to see them alive.
via: Fox News
The bodies of Ricky Johnson, 38; Clayton McGeeney, 36; and David Harrington, 37, were discovered on Jan. 9 after one man’s fiancée told Kansas City police she had not heard from her partner in two days. Two of the men were found in the snow outside Jordan Willis’ rental home, while the other was found dead on the man’s back porch.
The Kansas City Police Department told Fox News Digital that they are awaiting the results of the men’s post-autopsy toxicology reports.
The fifth man who was at the home on Jan. 7, who has not been named publicly, told FOX4 Kansas City that Willis and the three men were still awake when he left the home at Northwest 83rd Terrace that night. He stressed that he was not the last person to see the men alive.
His attorney, Andrew Talge, told the outlet that his client arrived at the residence to watch the Chiefs play the Los Angeles Chargers around 7 p.m., and he left at approximately midnight.
When his client left, Talge said, the other four men were awake watching “Jeopardy.”
John Picerno, the attorney representing Willis, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that the fifth man left his client’s house first, then said goodbye to the other three men before falling asleep on his couch.
In an earlier interview with FOX4, Picerno said Willis went to sleep while the four men were still awake and hanging out at the house.
Ross Nigro, an attorney representing Johnson’s family, said that news of a fifth person in the house is yet another example of inconsistency.
“Initially, he was by himself; now there was a fifth magical person who was at the house,” Nigro said. “The fact that the story has changed significantly makes it seem unbelievable and not trustworthy whatsoever. In addition to Mr. Willis leaving the residence and hiring a criminal defense attorney, those are all signs of someone hiding something.”
Nigro claims a still-living party who was at the gathering recalled that Willis’ two dogs were present at the watch party preceding the men’s deaths, remarking that “if you have a dog and there’s three deceased people at the house, they would alert you to the bodies.”
It is unclear whether that party was the fifth man referred to in the new reports.
However, Picerno claims that the animals were boarded at his client’s father’s house during the gathering.
After the men left, Picerno said, Willis slept “a lot of the time” during the subsequent 48 hours. Meanwhile, the friends and family of McGeeney, Johnson and Harrington said they called, emailed, texted and messaged him on Facebook when they could not contact their loved ones.
At least two concerned parties said they knocked on Willis’ door before police responded to the home at approximately 8:51 p.m. on Jan. 9, but he did not answer the door.
Picerno denied those claims in a Tuesday interview with Fox News Digital.
“The thing that strikes me that’s strange about that is that none of those people called him on his cellphone,” he said. “One of them, I believe it was the fiancée, did send him a message on Facebook Messenger. But he didn’t receive it until after police had.”
The fiancée allegedly broke into the back of the home after her calls and knocks went unanswered and called police after finding one of the three bodies on Willis’ back porch. FOX4 reported that she shouted for Willis inside the house.
According to the victims’ families, Willis met officers at the door in his boxers with an empty wine glass in hand. Picerno told Fox News Digital it contained water and had been refilled after holding wine the night before.
Picerno said his client did not hear knocks at his door before the police arrived because he was sleeping with noise-canceling headphones and a loud fan. Willis also did not hear when the concerned woman broke into his house, Picerno said.
The Kansas City Police Department has stressed that Willis is not suspected of any wrongdoing and is not facing criminal charges.
