A killer landlord from Queens got life without parole Tuesday after he “mercilessly slaughtered” his girlfriend and two tenants because he thought she was about to end their relationship.
“I’m sure there’s a special place in hell for someone like you,” Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder told David Daniel in a fiery speech from the bench Tuesday. “I have a sentence voucher from each of the people you killed that will get you in the door.”
The family members of Daniel’s victims — his girlfriend, Coleen Caesar Fields, 51, and basement apartment tenants Wayne Thomas, 57, and Evette Sweeney, 55 — clapped and cheered as the judge pronounced the killer’s sentence for each of their murders. Holder, who first took the bench in 2006, is retiring this year, and this sentencing is expected to be his last.
The judge blasted Daniel, 56, for rejecting an offer of 33 years-to-life that prosecutors made in March 2025. “That was a gift,” Holder said. “That was a gift, because I told you how much time you could possibly get in a case like this. And I know you are not a stupid man.”
Daniel showed up at the 113th Precinct stationhouse the morning of Nov. 14, 2023, and told the officers there he had done a “horrible thing” inside his Milburn St. home in St. Albans.
When cops searched the house, they found Fields facedown on a bed in a second-floor bedroom, dead from multiple stab wounds to her neck. Police also found tenants Thomas and Sweeney stabbed to death in the basement.
At the time, Daniel told police he snapped because Fields had mocked him for not collecting back rent. But that motive fell apartment as the case went to trial, and jurors got a picture of Daniel as a possessive, unfaithful boyfriend who surveilled Fields with cameras in the home they shared.
“You said on your probation report that things were exaggerated to make it look bad. Make it look bad? You killed three people. You stabbed a disabled woman to death in her bed while she was sleeping! What gets worse than that?” the judge boomed. “What universe do you think you can do that and then — what, go home? What are you thinking? You are never going to get out of here.”
Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Zawistowski described the moment Daniel rejected the plea offer on March 24, 2025: “When the defendant walked through those cell doors, he quickly fired his attorney, turned to me with a smile on his face, and expressed a desire to go to trial.”
Daniel took the stand in his own defense, but the jury saw through his “invented defense of amnesia,” Zawistowski said.
“Since the date of the murders, this defendant has consistently portrayed himself as a victim,” he said.
Relatives of each of the victims packed the courtroom, sobbing as they called on the judge to lock Daniel away forever.
“Some of them, I know, would like to spend a minute with you,” Holder said.
Petula Thomas, Wayne Thomas’ sister, described how their mother frantically tried to reach her the day of the killing. “Unbeknownst to us,” she said, “Wayne and the others were not just killed but mercilessly slaughtered.”
“He deserves nothing less than a life sentence without the possibility of parole, never again to enjoy the seasons of life,” she said. “The tremendous pain, grief and devastation felt by the loss of Wayne is further compound by the fact that his death was so tragic, and came at the hands of a demonic, self-centered, insecure and cold-hearted narcissist.”
She added, pounding a table as she spoke, “Let me remind you… a greater judgement is coming.”
Charlene McKenzie, Sweeney’s daughter, said, “No apology will bring my mother back. No explanation will justify what you did…. If you are looking for any forgiveness from me, you will not find it.”
Most of the victims’ families turned their backs and left the courtroom as Daniel made a statement to the court, apologizing but never admitting to the specifics of his bloody spree, describing it as “a sad sad situation” and saying it “shouldn’t have occurred.”
“The person who did it at this moment doesn’t represent me,” he said.
Daniel waxed spiritual. But the handful of family members who stayed in the room were unmoved by his words.
“Before I go, everyone just try to remember that God knows best and he will take care of everything,” he said.
“Initially, I was so hurt, so upset. And after days, years… it will take me a while to recuperate. Just leave everything to God, and God will take care of you.”
The judge told Daniel his murderous actions destroyed lives beyond the three victims. “You’ve interrupted generational growth,” Holder said. “You’ve altered life plans. You’ve sent people into depression.”
“But you know what?” he went on. “In the end, you got the trial you asked for, and what did we learn? We learned that there’s absolutely nothing in your testimony that justifies the killing of any of these three people.”
Queens D.A. Melinda Katz said outside the courtroom, “Everyone, according to our justice system, has a right to a trial. He wanted the trial. He wanted everything to come out, and it did…. He’s going to now have a long time to think about the families that he affected, and the damage that he did.”