A loud-snoring Pennsylvania man allegedly killed his neighbor with whom he had a long-standing feud over the nighttime noise — which the victim had complained he could hear through the walls connecting their homes.
Christopher James Casey, 55, was arrested on Thursday for fatally stabbing 62-year-old Robert Wallace on Sunday evening when an argument over the snoring turned deadly, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.
Wallace showed up at Casey’s residence in Hatboro — about 20 miles north of Philadelphia — while Casey was eating dinner, pulled out a screen and unlocked a window on Casey’s porch before the two began yelling at each other.
The heated argument escalated, and Casey stabbed Wallace in the chest several times with a large, military-style knife, prosecutors said.
Wallace, who was found lying on the ground 50 feet from his home, was taken to Abington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Casey was also taken to the same hospital and treated for a self-inflicted stab wound to his right thigh, prosecutors said.
Casey told police at the hospital that Wallace had not been threatening him when he stabbed him in the doorway, but revealed the two had been having “personal issues” for the past 18 months — prompting numerous police calls over Wallace’s complaints about his snoring, WPVI reported.
The two men were already known to police “due to ongoing arguments, including arguments about the defendant’s loud snoring, which the victim could hear through the shared wall of the two residences,” prosecutors said.
After about 20 minutes of speaking through the window, Casey told police Wallace appeared to calm down, wanted to shake hands and even offered to help pay for nasal surgery to help with his snoring, according to an affidavit obtained by the outlet.
But Casey didn’t believe him.
“Casey said he did not believe Wallace’s intention of ‘try to work this out’ and ‘shake hands’ and try ‘to fix this situation’ was genuine,” police wrote in the affidavit. “As a result, Casey decided to ‘surprise him’ by stabbing Wallace with a knife.”
He called 911 and told emergency dispatchers that Wallace “broke my window,” police said in an affidavit. “I attacked my neighbor. He came to attack me.”
Police said they observed blood both inside and outside the residence, the window screen strewn out on the lawn and the window wide open.
Casey was charged with third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and possessing instruments of a crime, prosecutors said. He remained jailed Friday with bail set at $1 million.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 29.
