A man has been convicted of stabbing to death a security guard who came to evict him from his flat due to unpaid rent.
Chad Henderson attacked Nathan Burton, stabbing him four times in the chest at the address in Woodhurst Road, Moseley, shortly before 11pm on April 7, 2021.
The 27-year-old victim, from Wolverhampton and father to a young daughter, was dragged back down the stairs by his colleagues but collapsed in the street. He died within hours after being taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.
At Birmingham Crown Court today 46-year-old Henderson was found guilty of murder following a trial. He will be sentenced next month.
Henderson, an American national, who refused to appear in court and was also unrepresented by legal counsel, rang officers to tell them what he had done after the attack saying he had acted in self defence.
Henderson had arrived in the UK in July 2020 and lived in a number of flats before returning to a different property at Woodhurst Road.
He got into thousands of pounds of rent debt but despite appeals by the landlady for him to pay the increasing amount he ignored it until she demanded he move out of the property.
The landlady asked her son to hire a security firm to evict Henderson, with them attending in April 2021. When Mr Burton and his colleagues from the security firm arrived the first time he saw Henderson was in possession of a bottle and lighter giving the impression he was armed with a petrol bomb.
Officers were called and liaised with both parties and Mr Burton and his colleagues were told they required authority from a court to evict Henderson.
They returned later that evening and went upstairs where Henderson had barricaded himself in by wedging a sofa at the top of the stairs. Henderson was waiting for Mr Burton, who was leading the group.
Henderson leaned over the banister and stabbed him four times in the chest saying: ‘Why are you here? Why are you doing that you know you shouldn’t be here’.
His colleagues pulled Mr Burton down the stairs and into the street but he collapsed very quickly.
Henderson called officers and told the operator ‘I defended myself’. Police arrested him at the scene and interviewed him multiple times, where he told us he was putting in measures in place to stop a ‘home invasion.’
The jury serving at Henderson’s trial found him guilty of murder and he now faces a lengthy prison sentence.
Mr Burton’s heartbroken family have released a statement following the conviction. Speaking on behalf of his family, father Rob Burton said: “The last two-and-a-half years have been extremely traumatic and challenging for us as parents, Nathan’s brothers, his partner, family, friends and colleagues.
“Nathan was cruelly and brutally taken away from us in April 2021. Nathan had recently become a father to a little girl aged 10 months at the time of this tragedy. He was a doting father and she is now asking her mum the whereabouts of daddy. What does she tell our grand-daughter?
“The verdict does not bring Nathan back to us and we know that all we are left with is some great memories of a wonderful, kind and caring, selfless young man.
“Whilst justice has now been served. For us, as parents, partner, daughter, family, friends and colleagues our life sentence continues. “
Det Insp Ade George, from Homicide at Force CID, said: “This was a very tragic case. Nathan was a loving father who was much loved by his family. They have all been truly devastated by their loss and our thoughts go out to them at this time.
“Henderson was a man obsessed with his property rights and exercising and protecting what he believed to be those rights.
“He had decided he wouldn’t be resolved to move from the property, even if that cost was to the life of a person, which turned out to be Mr Burton.
“We are pleased the jury have come to a decision of guilty and that he will be spending many years behind bars.”