‘Dad, why do you have the knife?’: Youth pastor who called himself a ‘monster’ stabbed wife and 5 kids because of looming eviction, financial troubles, affidavit says

Youth Pastor Matt Richards arrested

Inset: Matthew Lee Richards (Johnson County Jail;). Investigators in Shawnee, Kansas, respond to a stabbing and fire (KMBC/YouTube).

A youth pastor in Kansas has pleaded guilty to stabbing his wife and kids because the family was going to be evicted from their home due to his piling debt.

Matthew Lee Richards, 42, was originally charged with five counts of attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson. On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted first-degree murder, the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office said. He remains in the Johnson County Jail and is slated to be sentenced on March 26.

As Law&Crime previously reported, several 911 calls came in shortly before 4 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2023, for a house fire and a stabbing at a home in Shawnee, a suburb of Kansas City.

More from Law&Crime: Prosecutors turn to state supreme court after woman who beat mom with iron skillet and stabbed her dozens of times to conceal college suspension had murder conviction overturned 

“One of the callers said their dad [was] chasing them with a knife and the dispatcher could hear a fire alarm sounding in the background,” the affidavit said. “An additional caller stated she had been stabbed.”

Officers arrived at the home and found three stab wound victims outside. Smoke was billowing from the home and an explosion occurred, which blew out the garage doors, investigators said. Detectives determined Richards’ wife, four sons, one of whom is 19 while the others are minors, and daughter were all stabbed. His wife was suffering from multiple stab wounds and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, the affidavit said. Two of the children also suffered serious stab wounds.

One of the kids told officers “they were all in bed when dad came around stabbing everyone and they all ran outside. He stated his dad stabbed him,” the affidavit said. Officers took Richards out of the home and to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Once he was cleared, he told investigators “I stabbed my family” in an interview.

“The defendant said that he had not been honest with his wife regarding their financial situation and the fact that they were supposed to be evicted that very day,” detectives wrote. “They had not packed anything and no one in the family knew they were being evicted.”

So Richards formulated a plan to burn down the house. He set the fire first and then grabbed a knife.

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