A Queens couple fatally stabbed by their unhinged landlord in a ugly triple slaying was on the verge of shifting out earlier than being killed, says the lifeless man’s brother, breaking his silence on the eve of his sibling’s funeral.
Tragic pair Wayne Thomas, 57, and Evette Sweeney, 51, had been simply ready for his or her St. Albans landlord, David Daniel, to return their deposit when Daniel allegedly went berserk and stabbed his girlfriend to demise earlier than going after the couple of their basement condominium Nov. 14, Ronald Thomas instructed The Publish.
Sweeney had bother strolling, and the pair had been hoping to get a brand new house to higher accommodate her, Ronald Thomas mentioned — as he ready to assist bury his brother Wayne on Saturday, greater than three weeks after the mindless slayings.
“They had been planning to go away,” Ronald, 55, mentioned of his sibling and Sweeney. “They need to have left from August. They discovered a spot however didn’t have an opportunity to get out. I used to be instructed he was ready for his deposit from the owner.
“It was devasting,” he mentioned of the slayings. “I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat. We nonetheless can not consider this occurred. The household can not come to grips with this horrible tragedy.”
Daniel, 54, was arraigned Monday on an indictment charging him with three counts every of first- and third-degree homicide, and felony possession of a weapon within the bloody incident.
He was arrested after strolling into the 113th Precinct station home shortly after 7 a.m. Nov. 14 and allegedly confessing to the grisly slayings, telling cops he left the again door open for them.
“I did one thing dangerous,” he allegedly instructed police.
Inside the home, cops discovered the bloodied our bodies of Daniel’s girlfriend, 51-year-old Coleen Ceasar, and the 2 tenants, nonetheless inside their basement condominium.
The subsequent day, Daniel instructed reporters as he was being led from the precinct to Queens Felony Court docket that he stabbed the victims due to “a number of strain.”
Ronald Thomas mentioned his brother labored at JFK Worldwide Airport, the place Ronald works as a supervisor within the cargo division and had gotten him the job.
Wayne Thomas labored for Woldwise Flight Providers in a warehouse, driving a forklift and loading and unloading cargo at a distinct part of the Queens airport, his brother mentioned.
Family and mates mentioned that’s the place he met Sweeney, who labored for Company Loss Prevention Associates, an out of doors contractor, with the safety workforce in Constructing 9 at JFK.
The pair each toiled the midnight to 7 a.m. shift, commuting to work collectively.
“He was at all times strolling taking part in reggae music louder than he ought to,” a coworker instructed The Publish. “He had a speaker hanging from his neck. You’d see him by the morning espresso truck ready for her, then they’d depart collectively.”
Thomas was a local of Jamaica, and Sweeney grew up in a Jamaican household within the UK, mates and family mentioned.
Wayne Thomas was the eldest of six youngsters and migrated to the US about 20 years in the past, his brother mentioned.
He moved into the Queens condominium together with his girlfriend final yr. His brother dismisses Daniel’s declare that he was irked on the pair as a result of they owed him again lease.
“That’s not him,” Ronald Thomas mentioned of his sibling.
“I’m simply hurting badly proper now,” he added. “I’m simply lower up inside. That is the primary tragedy in our household. Everybody [else] died of previous age. God bless his soul for the time he spent on earth.”
He mentioned Daniel, who’s due again in court docket subsequent week, “ought to get the utmost penalty for destroying three human beings and slicing out of life, any achievements in life, any happiness.
“He took that away from three individuals,” he added. “He ought to get life with out parole. That’s what he deserves — by no means to see the streets anymore. He misplaced that proper.”
Providers for Wayne Thomas might be held Saturday at J. Foster Phillips Funeral Providers, 179-24 Linden Ave., in Jamaica, adopted by burial at Pinelawn Memorial Park.
Funeral providers for Sweeney haven’t been made public.