Landlord ‘under stress’ charged with stabbing 3 people to death in Queens home: DA

QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) – A Queens landlord has been charged with murder after he allegedly stabbed to death two tenants and his girlfriend on Tuesday, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.

David Daniel, 54, walked into a police precinct Tuesday morning and told police, “I am having issues with my tenants. I did something bad.” 

After going to Daniel’s home on Milburn Avenue in the St. Albans neighborhood, officers found a man and a woman lying on the floor in the basement, authorities said. Each victim had sustained multiple stab wounds.

In a second-floor bedroom, officers found Daniel’s girlfriend, who also had multiple stab wounds, according to authorities. The three victims — identified as 51-year-old Coleen Fields, 57-year-old Wayne Thomas, and 55-year-old Evette Sweeney — were all pronounced dead at the scene, police said. 

“The bloody crime scene was the result of extraordinary brutality,” Katz said in a statement. 

Daniel was arraigned in a criminal court on Wednesday and charged with three counts of murder in the first and second degrees. He is also charged with criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, according to court documents.

If convicted, Daniel faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

When asked by reporters why he had allegedly stabbed two of his tenants and his girlfriend, Daniel responded, “I was under a lot of stress.”