‘I think I stabbed one of them’: Murder suspect called 911 about home invasion

Just before Brian John Leiteritz allegedly used a kitchen knife at his McKinleyville home to fatally stab another man, he called 911.

“I just got my lights turned off,” Leiteritz told an emergency dispatcher. “These guys are trying to break into my house.”

The dispatcher asked Leiteritz if he knew who the men were. He said he didn’t. The dispatcher asked where the intruders were standing. At the front of the house, Leiteritz responded.

“I’m going after them,” Leiteritz said suddenly, almost under his breath.

“You don’t need to go out there,” the dispatcher quickly replied.

What took place immediately afterward has, for the past three days, been the main subject of Leiteritz’s preliminary hearing. He is being accused of murder with a special allegation of using a knife in the Aug. 9 killing of Dylon K. Liakos, a Rohnert Park resident who had become romantically involved with the suspect’s ex-girlfriend.

The final piece of evidence heard in court during Wednesday’s session was an audiotape of Leiteritz’s two phone calls to 911. Not long after his first call, he was speaking to emergency dispatch again.

“Three guys came and hit me in my face,” he said on the phone, his voice scattered and tense. The men were now in a dark-colored sedan, speeding up and down Boss Road in McKinleyville, Leiteritz told dispatch.

One of the men looked like he had a gun, Leiteritz said, later telling Humboldt County Sheriff’s Deputy Eric Losey the man pointed at him with outstretched arms, locked elbows and hands together — a shooting stance.

As the dispatcher asked him questions about the alleged assault, Leiteritz suddenly made an admission.

“I think I stabbed one of them,” he said. Prompted by questions, he described his weapon as a “pretty long” kitchen knife. It was too dark inside the house to say if there was blood on the knife, because someone had manually shut off his electricity, he said.

He repeated what he’d told the last dispatcher — he didn’t know who the men were. But then he mentioned his ex-girlfriend, Alicia Rose.

“She’s been calling me, blowing up my phone all night,” he said.

Rose, who took the stand again Wednesday after a lengthy testimony the day before, had visited Leiteritz’s house just before the alleged “home invasion.” She said she needed to pick up the rest of her belongings following the couple’s breakup.

During the actual incident, Rose was just a mile away at a nearby Denny’s. A camera recording places her in the diner’s lobby, according to Leiteritz’s defense attorney.

Two men traveled with her: Dylon Liakos, with whom she had become romantically involved, and Terrance Ford, a friend who had driven them around all day. While Rose was at the restaurant, Ford testified to driving Liakos back to Leiteritz’s house.

According to Ford, he soon afterward witnessed Liakos gasping for air in front of him. It would be one of Liakos’ final moments alive.

Losey arrived to the scene shortly after Leiteritz’s second 911 call. It wasn’t his first trip to the Boss Road residence; he had previously once responded to a domestic dispute between Leiteritz and Rose. Other deputies told him the house was a “frequent” site of 911 responses to domestic incidents.

The deputy testified Wednesday to finding Liakos laying on the sidewalk in front of the driveway, a small pool of blood near his body. He didn’t show signs of a pulse. Losey initiated CPR, but the victim remained unresponsive.

Leiteritz would eventually give three statements to Losey that night. In his first, he said he had been woken up by a pounding on his front door. When he opened it, Leiteritz said, he was struck in the face by an object and fell backward into his house.

Leiteritz said he swung back up quickly and ran after the assailants, who were running away from the house. He said a man pointed what looked like a gun in his direction, prompting him to duck between two cars on the driveway. The assailants escaped down Boss Road toward McKinleyville Avenue.

After Leiteritz ended his statement, Losey noticed something: There had been no mention of a knife. Leiteritz’s recounting of events didn’t explain how Liakos was stabbed and now lay unconscious on the sidewalk.

Across two additional statements, Leiteritz acknowledged the knife but couldn’t place exactly how, or when, he had used it — “it all happened so fast,” he told the deputy.

Leiteritz was arrested later that night. He remains in custody.

The hearing continues Thursday morning.

Shomik Mukherjee can be reached at 707-441-0504.