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A Kansas City man is accused of beating his neighbor to death in his home in the Emerson Manor Apartments on Tuesday afternoon and telling witnesses not to call the police as the alleged killer was “covered” in blood.
Jackson County prosecutors charged Charles E. Stamper, 57, with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the killing of Dickens F. Taima. As of Thursday, Stamper was being held without bond in the Jackson County jail.
Kansas City police officers were called to the apartment building in the 2000 block of East Linwood Boulevard on what was initially reported as a cutting, Officer Donna Drake, a department spokeswoman, said at the scene Wednesday afternoon.
Officers at that time had already taken Stamper into custody as a person of interest.
According to court documents, officers responding to the emergency on Wednesday were directed to a fourth-floor apartment by a witness. The officers forced entry to the apartment after knocking and hearing no response to find Stamper standing near the doorway of a bedroom, according to charging documents.
As he was being placed under arrest, Stamper told the officers he acted in self defense and told them: “There is a gun in there on the floor.”
Police found Taima in a bedroom with injuries that appeared to be caused by blunt force, including a gaping wound on the back of his head.
Investigators discovered an industrial-sized carriage bolt wrapped with a red strap that was believed to be the weapon used to beat Taima to death. A handgun was found on the floor a few feet away with ammunition loaded into its magazine but not in the chamber.
One witness told police she shares the apartment with Taima and that Stamper had come over to run errands with her while Taima was asleep. She said she gave him a set of keys and told him she was going to take a shower.
Five minutes after Stamper left, she told detectives, she heard screaming. She opened the bathroom door to see Stamper in the doorway with “blood on his hands” before he told her “everything is fine” and closed the bedroom door.
She said she went to a neighbor’s and they returned to find the apartment locked, according to court documents.
Other witnesses said they went to confront Stamper and saw him open the door briefly to find him covered in blood. He allegedly asked them not to contact the police.
Stamper declined to be interviewed by detectives outside the presence of a lawyer, according to court documents.
Online court records did not list an attorney for Stamper as of Thursday.
