An American national has been found guilty of murdering a security guard who was trying to evict him from his flat due to unpaid rent.
Chad Henderson stabbed Nathan Burton four times in the chest at the property in Woodhurst Road, Moseley, Birmingham, shortly before 11pm on April 7 2021.
In a statement issued after the guilty verdict on Thursday, West Midlands Police said 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.
Henderson will be sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court on October 26 after refusing to appear in court for his trial.
The 46-year-old arrived in the UK in July 2020 and lived in a number of flats, amassing thousands of pounds in rent debt.
Police said Henderson called officers and told the operator “I defended myself” and later claimed in interview to have been putting measures in place to stop a “home invasion”.
Mr Burton’s heartbroken father Rob Burton said after the case: “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.”
Detective Inspector Ade George said: “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.”
