A Wisconsin landlord admitted that he “lost it” when he fatally shot a tenant who he claimed was dealing drugs, then killed a woman who witnessed the shooting right in front of her young son.
Kevin Griffin, 54, faces multiple felony charges in connection with the shooting deaths of 39-year-old Terrance Wilder and 31-year-old A’nya Raymond in Milwaukee. Investigators say the killings took place on Nov. 4.
According to a criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime, Griffin and Wilder lived at the same address.
Griffin told detectives that he had been trying to evict Wilder, but paperwork issues had triggered some delays in the process. He said he went to confront Wilder on Nov. 4 after learning Wilder was leaving the back doors of the property open.
Griffin claimed Wilder was in the middle of a drug deal when he went to talk to him and confessed that he shot Wilder “in anger.”
“So, just, I mean, I should have thought rationally, but I just went off in anger, man, and just lost it,” Griffin told detectives, according to the complaint.
Authorities say A’nya Raymond was in the room with Griffin and Wilder when the shooting happened.
Raymond told Griffin that she wouldn’t say anything about the shooting to anyone, but Griffin didn’t believe her, according to the complaint.
When Raymond said they could “go somewhere and kick it,” Griffin told her to get in his car.
Griffin said that he, Raymond, and her son got into his Mercedes. While he was driving, he said Raymond reached into her purse and pulled out a knife and mace. Griffin responded with lethal force.
“I hit her and I was like f— it. I shot her too,” Griffin told detectives.
Griffin said Raymond “was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
He admitted to dumping her body in an alley, then tossing the murder weapon on some railroad tracks near a school.
Griffin said that after he ditched the murder weapon, he took her child back to his home, where they both got into Raymond’s car. Then, he drove Raymond’s car to another location, told the boy to wait for his mother, and then abandoned him.
Prosecutors say the child is 7 years old and non-verbal. The boy was later found wandering with no shoes and blood on his clothes. The police immediately flagged him as a missing child, but later discovered he was Raymond’s child after receiving a report about the shootings.
Authorities found Raymond’s body the day after the shooting and discovered she had been shot eight times. Wilder’s body was found days later lying on a bed at his home with a gunshot wound to his chest.
“It’s been my nightmare. My hell. My hell,” Wilder’s mother, Demertha Wilder, told WISN.
City records obtained by WISN show that Wilder filed a complaint on Aug. 28 with the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services after not having hot water for two months. Official documents show an inspector ordered Griffin to fix leaky faucets, a clogged drain, a back door, and install a railing, but none of those issues were fixed.
Wilder’s mother believes the shooting was in retaliation after Wilder went to the city about the issues he experienced as Griffin’s tenant.
On a GoFundMe page, Raymond’s mother said her “heart and head is so heavy with grief.”
“She’ll never see her oldest daughter graduate college. She’ll never see her youngest son grow up and be able to speak his first words because he’s autistic,” Renay Raymond told WISN. “I won’t be able to see my daughter grow old. I wasn’t supposed to bury her. She was supposed to bury me.”
Griffin was charged with one count of first-degree reckless homicide, one count of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. His bail was set at $500,000.
“Not only did he commit two extremely aggravated homicides, one of which was in front of a small child who he was happy to abandon, he’s a felon 14 times over,” Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Sara Hill said.
