According to police, a Wisconsin landlord who was attempting to evict a tenant shot him dead, claiming he “lost it” after apparently discovering the victim in the middle of a narcotics deal. According to authorities, the landlord then kidnapped a mother who was at the tenant’s home with a child and murdered her after she observed the first shooting.
“I was like, f—it. “I shot her too,” Kevin Griffin, 54, of Milwaukee, said detectives during an interview, according to a criminal complaint acquired by Law&Crime.
Griffin allegedly stated that A’nya Raymond, the mother who was killed, “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time” when he murdered his renter, Terrance Wilder, on November 4 at the home he was renting to him. Griffin explained that he had been attempting to evict Wilder, but there had been issues with his “paperwork,” which was delaying the process, according to the lawsuit.
“Griffin said they were arguing about [Wilder] leaving the backdoors of the residence open and he/Griffin had gone up to confront [Wilder] about this,” according to the claim.
“Griffin said [Wilder] was ‘in the middle of a drug deal and he (Griffin) just lost it,'” the paper continues, quoting Griffin. “I mean, I should have thought rationally, but I just went off in anger, man, and just lost it,” Griffin added, according to the paper.
Griffin told investigators after killing Wilder that he saw Raymond and her son in the house and ordered them to get into his Mercedes outside, according to authorities. “[Raymond] told Griffin that she had nothing to do … with any of this and she told him that ‘she was not going to say anything’ but Griffin did not believe her,” according to the report.
Raymond apparently pleaded with Griffin as he ordered the woman and her child into his car, telling him she could “go somewhere and kick it” while remaining silent. Griffin did not care and drove away with Raymond and her child in the Mercedes, according to police.
According to the complaint, Raymond pulled out a knife and mace from her purse while driving. “I hit her and then I was like f— it,” Griffin allegedly told the mother before shooting her eight times, with her child watching from the backseat.
Griffin acknowledged to discarding Raymond’s body in an alley near the house, according to the complaint, and then allegedly “ditched” his pistol along some train tracks near the school. Griffin stated that he returned Raymond’s son to his residence and placed him in her car before driving him to another location.
“He left the child and told the child to wait there for his mother to come get him,” according to the charge. Raymond’s son was later seen “wandering with apparent blood on his clothes and shoeless,” the complaint said.
On November 5, police received a report of the Wilder shooting and responded to the residence at 4824 North 42nd Street in Milwaukee. Raymond’s body was located in a nearby alley, while Wilder was discovered inside the home days later on Nov. 9 “on his bed, lying face up,” according to the complaint, during the execution of a search warrant.
Griffin, the landlord, was questioned about the incident and allegedly admitted to being “the person who shot and killed both” individuals.
“It’s been my nightmare,” Wilder’s mother, Demertha Wilder, told WISN, a local ABC affiliate. “My hell,” she exclaimed.
Renay Raymond, Raymond’s mother, characterizes her death as “the worst news any parent could get” on GoFundMe, saying, “My daughter was found shot dead and left in an alley.” My heart and head are weighted with grief.”
Griffin was apprehended and charged with first-degree deliberate homicide by dangerous weapon, first-degree reckless homicide by dangerous weapon, and felon in possession of a handgun.
According to city records obtained by WISN, Wilder filed a complaint with the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services in August about the unit he was renting from Griffin after two months without hot water. An inspector reportedly ordered Griffin to repair a number of leaking faucets, a clogged drain, and a rear door. He was also allegedly instructed to erect a railing, according to WISN, but records show that none of the issues were ever resolved.
“Do you believe this was retaliation for that?” a WISN reporter asked Wilder’s mother, who said, “Yes, I do.”
Griffin is presently being jailed under a $500,000 bail. He has a preliminary hearing planned for November 26.
