Jerry Thompson convicted of killing Victor King with sword – A jury in Connecticut on Friday found a man who decapitated his roommate with a samurai sword in 2020 guilty of murder, according to a press release from the Hartford State Attorney.
Jerry Thompson, 45, was convicted in the death of Victor King.
Jerry Thompson, right, was convicted of killing his roommate Victor King, left, with a samurai sword at their Hartford, Connecticut, home in 2020. (King photo via his obituary, Thompson photo from Connecticut Department of Corrections)Jerry Thompson convicted of killing Victor King with sword
Evidence showed the Thompson and King were roommates and the victim was trying to get the suspect evicted for not paying rent. On July 25, 2020, King called Hartford police twice over several hours to say Thompson was threatening him with a sword. Later that morning, surveillance video showed Thompson drive up to the home and walk up with “a long object in his hand,” the press release said.
About 20 minutes later, video showed Thompson walked out wearing different clothes. King’s family and friends became worried when he wasn’t responding to their texts or calls the next day so they urged Hartford police to enter the home for a welfare check. When officers went inside, they found King’s body in the kitchen under blankets with “two serious injuries to his neck that resulted in decapitation,” prosecutors said.
Investigators found the samurai-style sword in a river about 10 miles north of the crime scene.
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According to the Hartford Courant, King was one of the top bridge players in the country and won a national championship in 2016. He worked at Travelers Insurance for more than 20 years before retiring in 2018.
King’s death left his family stunned.
“It was pretty brutal,” King’s cousin, Jim Banks, told the Courant at the time. “I can’t imagine him doing anything that would provoke somebody. That just wasn’t in his personality.”
After Thompson’s arrest, police found papers in his Jeep that said he identified as a sovereign citizen, meaning he felt that the laws in the U.S. did not apply to him.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 11 in Hartford Superior Court.
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