John Jefferson
Jerry Gelpi (WDSU).
A Louisiana man who claimed he was the “son of God” and that his weakened COVID-19-infected upstairs neighbor he fatally stabbed 16 times in a bathtub was “a demon” who needed to die will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jerry Gelpi, 42, was sentenced on Wednesday to life plus 40 years for fatally stabbing his neighbor, Charles Davis, 68, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney announced in a press release. He was also fined $100,000.
“Mr. Gelpi, you’re going where you deserve to be,” 24th Judicial District Court Judge Frank Brindisi told Gelpi when he sentenced him. “You accused this man of being a demon. You were the only demon that day.”
Gelpi was convicted on Oct. 3 of first-degree murder after a Jefferson Parish jury deliberated 24 minutes, rejecting his claim that a mental defect prevented him from knowing right from wrong when he murdered Davis, prosecutors said. Gelpi was also found guilty of obstruction of justice for eliminating evidence — ditching the knife in the Mississippi River.
The bloodshed happened on Feb. 8, 2021. Gelpi entered Davis’ apartment above his and attacked the man at the entrance to his bathroom. During the struggle, Gelpi stabbed Davis in the neck. Davis’ sink was knocked off the wall.
Davis was either pushed or fell into the bathtub, where Gelpi continued to stab him at least 16 times, before the killer went into the kitchen, washed the blood from his hands and returned to his apartment seven minutes later, prosecutors said.
On the morning of Feb. 9, 2021, Davis’ daughter went to his apartment after he hadn’t responded to texts, found the door unlocked and discovered his clothed body curled in the fetal position in the bathtub, his wallet missing, authorities said.
Detectives looked at surveillance videos and quickly linked Gelpi to the killing. Gelpi initially denied to detectives that he knew anything about the killing, denied being in Davis’ apartment, and gave investigators the name of a local homeless man as a suspect.
But after investigating Gelpi’s background, detectives learned that he had used knives in crimes before. Once after an argument with two men at a Walmart in 2020, and in 2013 in Ohio, he threatened to stab a loss-prevention officer who stopped him in a shoplifting attempt.
After Gelpi was convicted of robbery, his DNA profile was entered into a national database, which helped link Gelpi to Davis’ apartment, prosecutors said. Authorities said Gelpi’s DNA was under Davis’ fingernails and on the kitchen faucet he used to wash the blood from his hands.
When police went to arrest Gelpi, he happened to be riding up to the apartment building on a bicycle, and he was carrying a knife, authorities said.
A search of his apartment turned up five tactical knives. His computer browser history showed searches for information about knife fighting and about stabbing people in their kidneys, hearts and lungs, prosecutors said.
He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Prosecutors said at trial, Gelpi testified that he was “the son of God,” was not in control of himself when he killed Davis, and did it because he believed Davis was “the strongest demon in my experience.”
“He pointed to detectives seated in the courtroom and said they were demons,” prosecutors said.
Gelpi’s attorney argued that he was insane at the time he stabbed Davis and so could not be held criminally responsible for Davis’ death. But prosecutors countered he had been “malingering” or fabricating mental illness, pointing to his history of faking illness to avoid punishment.
Before he was murdered, Davis, a forklift driver who rode his bicycle to work several miles each day, was severely weakened with COVID-19, had lost 70 pounds, required auxiliary oxygen and had been undergoing long-term rehabilitation. He’d been hospitalized for months. While he was in the hospital, his girlfriend died from the virus.
“He was in pretty poor health. He was trying to recover, but he didn’t have any strength. He couldn’t breathe. He could not defend himself,” said Davis’ cousin, Kathy Norvell, told NOLA.com.
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