By LeoNardo Blair, Senior Reporter
Susceptible crossroads Christian Church kid’s pastor, Matthew Lee Richards, who used to be arrested and charged with attempting to kill his wife and youngsters and burn down their foreclosed home in Kansas on tale of he didn’t desire them to perceive they were being evicted, has pleaded responsible to 2 counts of attempted kill.
Richards, 43, who before all the things confronted four expenses of attempted first-level kill, one charge of attempted capital kill and one charge of aggravated arson, entered the responsible pleas on Tuesday, per the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office, KMBC Files reported.
Investigators mentioned they were known as along with the native fireplace department to the household’s home about a document of a disturbance and a dwelling fireplace at 3:47 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2023.
They rapidly discovered that the pastor’s kids and wife suffered “laceration accidents of varying levels.” Richard’s wife and two of his kids were hospitalized on the time. His 19-365 days-phenomenal son and two of his other kids were treated and released.
Police statements cited in an affidavit mentioned they obtained so a lot of 911 calls about Richards’ attack.
“One in every of the callers mentioned their dad [was] chasing them with a knife and the dispatcher may perhaps well also hear a fireplace fright sounding within the background,” the affidavit mentioned. “A further caller mentioned she had been stabbed.”
When police obtained to the scene, smoke used to be billowing from the dwelling and an explosion blew out the storage doors. In step with the affidavit, one in all the kids told officers, “They were all in mattress when dad came visiting stabbing all americans and all of them ran beginning air. He mentioned his dad stabbed him.”
Investigators mentioned after Richards used to be treated on the sanatorium for smoke inhalation, he confessed in an interview, “I stabbed my household.”
Earlier than the attack, the household had lived within the four-mattress room, 2.5 lavatory home in Shawnee since it used to be bought in December 2016. Civil court files cited by the Kansas Metropolis Huge name show that in November 2022, a foreclosure petition used to be filed for the home.
Richards, who had been working as a seventh-grade English teacher at Christ Preparatory Academy since 2020, in holding along with his workforce biography, and his wife, Stephanie, who used to be the director of crossroads Christian Preschool and Dad and mother Day Out, owed $155,429 on their mortgage on the time.
Public files show the home used to be bought in June 2023.
Richards shall be sentenced on March 26.
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