‘You Black motherf—ers’: Racist landlord headed to prison for stealing the identities of Black tenants to obtain COVID relief benefits, then evicting them

racist landlord

David Merryman, a landlord in Virginia, is headed to prison for renting distressed properties and stealing COVID relief funds from Black tenants (WTKR/YouTube).

A 59-year-old Virginia man was sentenced to nearly two decades in prison for harassing Black tenants with racial slurs and stealing their identities to obtain COVID relief funds.

David L. Merryman, who owned more than 60 rental properties in Newport News and Hampton, will spend the next 17 years in prison for wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and race-based interference with housing and employment.

The properties were mostly located in low income areas and he primarily rented to poor Black tenants who had nowhere else to live, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a press release. The homes were in awful condition with holes in the ceilings and walls, leaks and rodent activity, among other issues, according to prosecutors.

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