Police: Jackson Township landlord charged with murder of his tenant
Police have charged a Jackson Township landlord with the murder of his tenant earlier this year, according to a news release.
On Monday, Northern York County Regional Police charged Zachary Neiman, 35, of Jackson Township with murder in the third degree and involuntary manslaughter, the department said in a news release Tuesday.
Police were called to the property in the 6400 block of Pigeon Hill Road at 6:46 a.m. on April 30 of this year for a reported cardiac arrest, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by the police department.
The affidavit states that Neiman identified himself in the call to 911, stating that he found "his buddy who lives next door" unconscious in his yard. Neiman told the 911 dispatcher that he was performing chest compressions and that his friend, who he identified as Michael Byers, 42, was "cold as ice," the affidavit states.
EMS arrived several minutes later to find Neiman giving Byers chest compressions, according to the affidavit. The affidavit states that EMS reported that Byers "had no obvious signs of life when they arrived on scene."
Medical crews reported that Byers was covered in mud, "as if he had been dragging himself through the mud," and was only wearing shorts without a shirt or shoes, the affidavit states.
Byers had been a tenant of Neiman, police say, and was living in a detached apartment building of Neiman's on the same property where Neiman lived. Neiman occupied a two-story house near the road, and Byers occupied a smaller two-story apartment approximately 15 feet behind the home, the affidavit states.
At the time, Neiman claimed to officers that he had found Byers outside deceased, laying next to a fire pit, police said.
Neiman told investigators that he had been outside alone by the fire pit around 10:30 p.m. on April 29, and that when Byers came outside, Neiman claimed he went into his house to go to bed about an hour later.
Neiman claimed that "Byers had been stumbling a lot," and appeared highly intoxicated, the affidavit states.
When police spoke with neighbors, a different story began to emerge.
Two neighbors told police that on April 29, they heard Neiman and Byers arguing down by the fire pit around 9 p.m., according to the affidavit.
The neighbors told police that Neiman's dog had gotten loose and appeared scared, so they had taken the dog into their yard.
Police said the two witnesses briefly spoke with Neiman that night when he came to get his dog, and Neiman told them that "he just beat the s--- out of Mike," according to the affidavit. The witnesses then reported that after Neiman returned to his property with his dog, they continued to hear Neiman assault Byers throughout the night, and estimated the time was around 10 p.m., police say.
Neighbors reported to have heard Byers groaning from the direction of the fire pit around 2 a.m., the affidavit states.
Upon an investigation of cellphone records, Neiman was found to have used Byers' phone to call his brother and mother before calling 911 the following morning. Neiman told officers that he used Byers' phone to call due to his own phone being broken, the affidavit states.
An autopsy performed at Lehigh Valley Health Network on May 1 revealed the cause of death of Byers to be blunt force trauma complicated by ethanol intoxication, the release states.
During an interview at the Northern York County Regional Police station on May 4, Neiman began to change his story, police said. There, Neiman told police he had been drinking with Myers when they got into an altercation, according to the affidavit.
Neiman was denied bail and is being held in York County prison.
Anyone with information on the murder is asked to contact Northern York County Regional Police at 717.467.TELL (8355) or tips@nycrpd.org.
This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun: Police: Jackson Township, Pa. landlord charged with murder of tenant
