Christopher Casey’s loud snoring was audible through the shared wall of their duplex. And the two men argued about it constantly. Then on Monday, January 15, the snoring argument turned deadly.
Casey called 911 just after 6:30 that evening, reporting a stabbing at his Upper Moreland Township, Pa., residence, according to prosecutors.
At the scene, police found Robert Wallace, 62, suffering from multiple stab wounds about 50 feet from Casey’s home, per prosecutors, who say that Casey’s right thigh had also been stabbed.
Both men were rushed to Abington Hospital, where Wallace was pronounced dead about 30 minutes after the 911 call.
Police found a “large military-style knife and a cellphone,” on Casey’s front porch, according to a press release announcing his January arrest for third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and possessing an instrument of crime.
Last week, Casey – who had taken a plea deal, which took the murder charge off the table – was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to between 11 ½ and 23 months in county jail, with another three years of probation for the killing of the neighbor with whom he shared a wall, his public defender, James Lyons, confirms to PEOPLE.
Lyons, chief of the homicide unit in Montgomery County Public Defender Department, claims Casey responded with deadly force after his life was threatened multiple times.
In a comment he made to the Associated Press, he called 56-year-old Casey “a really good man who was not equipped to deal with this type of this sustained abuse and threats.” He declined to comment further on the case to PEOPLE.
Prosecutors say the two men were known to local police for “ongoing arguments” sometimes revolving around Casey’s “loud snoring,” which they say Wallace “could hear through the shared wall of the two residences.”
Investigating the crime scene following the stabbing, Upper Moreland Township Police found a window screen that had been taken down from a window by the front door and cast aside in the grass, per prosecutors. The window was pushed open.
Investigators determined that earlier that night Wallace had removed the window screen from the porch and interrupted Casey’s dinner, leading to a “verbal altercation between the two men,” according to prosecutors.
After opening the window, Wallace threatened to kill Casey because of the volume of his snoring, the AP reports, citing prosecutors. Then during the argument, Casey stabbed Wallace several times with a military style knife, prosecutors say.
Forensic Pathologist Dr. Ian Hood, of the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office, later found that Wallace had died of multiple stab wounds, with the manner of death determined to be homicide, according to prosecutors.
Casey was arrested in January, with his bail set at $1 million cash.
In court last week, Wallace’s family said that the Pennsylvania man had become so fatigued from the snoring-induced lack of sleep that it had taken a toll on his quality of life and his ability to work, the AP reports.
In response, Casey reportedly apologized, characterizing their final, fatal disagreement as “unfortunate.”
