Duck Key Landlord Tenant Dispute Turns Deadly
A Winter Springs, Florida man is under arrest charged with shooting and killing another man in connection with a landlord/tenant dispute on Duck Key.
The incident took place at 162 North Indies Drive on Duck Key at 6:20 p.m Friday. According to reports, the suspect, 32 year old Ryan Wilder of Winter Springs, Florida, and his girlfriend, 30 year old Amber Gray of Sugarloaf Key went to a home owned by his parents to illegally evict the tenant living on the premises. The tenants, 47 year old Kenneth Palicki and 25 year old Colleen Lyons, had been served with eviction papers which required them to be out of the house by August 23rd.
When Wilder arrived, Lyons was home but Palicki, was not there. Wilder walked into the house and reportedly began to remove the tenants’ property from the home and take it outside. As Wilder was removing the possessions from the residence, Palicki returned home. Wilder and Palicki began to argue.
Palicki told Lyons to call the Sheriff’s Office, which she did. While she was on the phone with Sheriff’s dispatchers, they asked her about weapons. She told them Wilder had a gun in a holster on his hip. During the call, Wilder allegedly shot Palicki multiple times. Lyons said she then saw Wilder walk out to his truck, gun still in his hand, and get in. She gave dispatchers a description of the truck and its direction of travel as Wilder drove away.
The truck was stopped a short distance away by Sgt. Joel Slough. The gun was reportedly found in the vehicle. Wilder was taken into custody. Palicki was transported to Fisherman’s Hospital in Marathon where he was pronounced dead. An examination of his body revealed four gunshot wounds to his left forearm, neck, mid-back and upper thigh. Major Crimes Detective Matthew Pitcher responded and conducted an investigation into the incident.
Wilder was arrested and charged with unpremeditated murder for shooting and killing Palicki. He was booked into jail.
A very unusual way to evict a tenant. Why not simply waited the extra few days and let the cops do it for him.As a landlord I do know the legal way to evict. Now we have deadbeat tenant dead and a man looking at many years of prison unless he had justified cause to fire that gun such as in defense of his own life. Am sure is much more to it.
What many tenants do not understand is that not moving out when ordered does destroy credit and an eviction by legal force follows them forever and makes it much harder in future rentals.
Why he shot the tenant will come out in court and he might get off with no charges.
I do believe this is one case where the “stand your ground” law will not be available. He shot the guy 4 freaking times, including in the back. The shot to the back would establish that the shooter was not in danger. You can tell why he shot the tenant. He is a mean looking asshole. I wonder if he had a permit for the gun.
And no, an eviction does not have any effect on your credit rating unless it was a large rental company that paid to belong to a credit reporting service and was able to make credit reports on people. If the landlord did not check a person’s credit rating, you can be sure they have no authority to report credit issues.
A legal eviction is a civil issue and I doubt that any credit agency monitors such things, unless the previous paragraph applied.
The real problem is that so many landlords take part in help-yourself legal process. Many have little to no understanding of landlord tenant law and do not legally evict people, but rather try to just kick them out and do dirty tricks like dumping the person’s stuff on the curb, turning off utilities or changing the locks, all of which are illegal.
A good friend of mine is a landlord and went with her boyfriend and another man who was armed. Nobody was shot, but the 3 do-it-yourself evictors all were arrested and charged with crimes. Paid a big civil settlement to the dead-beat tenant as well.
” The tenants, 47 year old Kenneth Palicki and 25 year old Colleen Lyons, had been served with eviction papers which required them to be out of the house by August 23rd”
This suggests that he did follow the law up till this point. Can not understand why he did not wait a few extra days.
Yes many landlords do not follow the law.
As to the credit issue it will show if the tenant forces it to go to court. What most tenants do not know is they must pay in cash the amount owed plus what will be owed by the time it goes to court. Reason most get evicted is because they are broke. So landlord files the eviction case and is no trial and this speeds up the cop at your door kicking you out. Your credit rating hurts you even on insurance for your car. If landlord sues for bal ance owed it will show. Most places want to see a rental history for last few years. An eviction will keep you out of many places. I seldom worry about credit ratings as many got hurt in the recent crash. I dam sure do check criminal history and turn down about half of them for this reason.
In last weeks case the stand your ground law might work as the danger was still active. Had the gun not jammed he had every right to shoot the old man.
In this case we do not know why the landlord fired the gun So might still be a stand your ground case.
The trial will take hours or even days to get the truth out. If that tenant went for a knife then hell yes shoot his ass.
Actually since he was there illegally kills the stand your ground law. You loose that anytime you are committing a crime.
Only chance he has is the tenant had a gun or knife. In short he made a stupid mistake.
And yes us landlords do use every trick we can legally use to evict a tenant.And not above dirty tricking them. Often they do not change driver license address in 10 days and often out of state plates. Are many ways short of killing them.
Most landlords have a clause to enter for any maintenance reasons with a 12 hour posted notice. I seldom have to take them to court. Most hope to get the security deposit back so best thing for them is to simply leave.
Have heard everything from sending a 300 lb thug to using electronic wi fi locks
that lock any past due tenant.
My method is to try to peacefully work to get them to leave. Using a gun is not a method to use. If it goes that far the cops will be called. Simply is not worth going to jail over it.
Why’d he go over there with a gun? If he is a landlord, he knows the legal way to evict tenants, and he knows at gun point is not it.
On it’s face, this killing looks to me very different from the killing reported last week. In that one, the land lord, so to speak, pulled a gun over a verbal argument and the tenant, so to speak, grabbed for the gun in self defense, I would imagine, and the gun fired, and the tenant gained possession of the pistol and tried to shoot the landlord, which probably would be a pretty good defense under Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law, but the gun jammed, so he killed the landlord, apparently, by driving a piece of wood down his throat then stomping it farther into the throat. Still, I imagine a Stand Your Ground Law defense will be mounted.
Several years ago, Dennis Ward told me of a case that happened when he was State Attorney from 2008-2012.
State Attorney Dennis Ward, which happened during his first term in office, 2008-2012.
Two guys got into an argument in a Duval Street bar. Then, they got into a fight, and one of them punched and got the best of the other, who left the bar, drove home, got his loaded pistol, and returned to the bar, and got into another argument with the guy who had punched him. The guy with the gun pulled it out. The other guy turned and fled and got shot in the back. A local judge ruled the guy with the gun had reason to believe his life was at risk and shooting the fleeing guy in the back was justified under Florida’s Stand Your Ground Law. Case dismissed.
I would not agree with that judge. He reentered knowing of the danger. But without knowing ALL of the case really hard to judge.
Last weeks case brings up many questions such as why so much cash in the home. Perhaps the old man was a drug dealer. Would think as a stripper he would not need an old man for a place to live or as a lover. No issues with him being a cross dresser or stripper. If he enjoys then great but he will need a dam lawyer.
the age gap does upset me.
I didn’t agree with the Judge in the Key West case, either, JIMINKEYWEST. Nor did Dennis Ward, who back the was strongly opposed to the Florida Stand Your Ground law, as did, he told me state attorneys and state, county and city law enforcement agencies throughout Florida.
Earlier this year, Dennis told me that mood shifted around the state, due to fear of losing state funding. Money trumps just about everything.
Problem is, what you or I or Dennis Waard think is irrelevant in shooting cases. What’s relevant is what a judge thinks and rules.
Also, that Key West case is legal authority in Key West/Monroe County courts, stare decisis (it’s been decided).
Other local judges don’t have to follow that ruling, but it is there facing them.
In the Duck Key Case, the landlord walked out of the residence and got in his truck and drove away. I imagine if he had felt his life was threatened, he would have called 911 after shooting the tenant, and waited for deputies to arrive at the scene.j
How much the tenant owed the landlord, how dead beat the tenant was, or was not, the tenant’s prior record, if any, are no justification for shooting an unarmed man 4 times, absent the shooter fearing for his life.
Actually the eviction laws treat the landlord like he is the victim. The law needs to change and as soon as 3 days late the landlord should be able to demand the money or have a cop arrest them. What many do not understand is this is part of why rents and deposits are so high. Have had calls from others to confirm rental history. As a lawyer you know how I must reply. I can only confirm the dates he rented and nothing like he was always late. Did tell one place that he was a good tenant and I would rent to him again. Her remark was thanks that was what she was looking to hear. Tenants often are people that simply are down on luck or credit scores so bad they can not buy a house.. Few want to be evicted but if lost job simply can’t pay and also can’t find a new place because broke.
Trust me I have my ass covered and have convinced a few to leave within an hour. If I notice the smell of POT I simply scare them by calling cops to bring a dog. They do not want that charge LOL.Yes a dirty trick but it works.
Yes, in this case he should have stayed. Am sure he shot him for a reason we do not know yet. Otherwise he could ham just ambushed him and kill him or hire a thug for $50 to bust the guy up badly. Hopefully we will get to hear how this story ends. Even with second degree murder he will be out in a few years. The tenant is dead for ever.
Another issue is alcohol in either or both often plays a factor into cases like .