Man hoped KC home would be ‘stepping stone.’ Instead, landlord is charged in his death
Samantha “Salem” Pohlman was scrolling through Craigslist looking for a date. It was about five years ago, when personal ads still existed on the website.
It was mostly a joke. But then she came across Darryl “Brent” Gilland’s listing.
The other men wrote about their cars and jobs. But Gilland, who also lived in Kansas City, seemed different. He said he didn’t have much to offer. Instead, he titled his post “a romantic candlelit bologna sandwich.” His sincerity and humor caught her off guard.
They started dating a few weeks later. They played video games, strolled through parks and let the music wash over them at concerts. He proposed to her. He rented a house.
They would have celebrated their five-year anniversary on New Years.
“We were hoping that house was kind of going to be the stepping stone of our life,” Pohlman said. First the home, then the wedding, then maybe, a baby.
But Gilland was killed just two days after they moved into their fixer-upper house. He was 28.
Shortly before 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 22, police responded to a reported cutting in the 6200 block of North Topping Ave. Paramedics pronounced Gilland, who had been stabbed more than 30 times, dead at the scene.
On Monday, Clay County prosecutors charged his landlord, 44-year-old Gordon T. McBeth in his death.
‘A gentle giant’ and a musician
Gilland was the youngest of seven children, and the only boy, said his sister Amanda Mullins, who likened their family to the Brady Bunch.
He got hooked on music from an early age. With their parents busy working and his older sisters off at college, Gilland spent a lot of his childhood with his grandparents, who helped enter him into guitar hero contests and drove him home with his first places, Mullins said.
Gilland grew up in Indiana before moving to Kansas City as a teenager. While he didn’t go to college, Gilland was more intelligent than most, earning the highest SAT score in his class.
Once in Kansas City, Gilland found his way into the music scene. About a decade ago he met Philip Clark. With Gilland on guitar and Clark on vocals, Clark said they started writing songs in his bedroom.
They started a band, called Johnny Switchblade. As they played gigs at local venues in Kansas City, Clark witnessed Gilland’s confidence grow and some of his shyness melt away.
While the group disbanded a couple years ago, Clark said he and Gilland, by then good friends, kept in touch. Clark watched Pohlman and Gilland fall in love, laughing at each other’s dumb jokes and working through financial hardship.
“They were soulmates. They were very sweet. They were always holding hands,” Clark said. “He almost never went out without her.”
.jpeg "IMG-879_fitted (1).jpeg")
Gilland, whom family called a gentle giant, had a large presence, but they said he shied away from confrontation, unless he felt someone needed help.
Once, Pohlman said, Gilland got home late because he saw a man harassing a woman on the bus. When the man followed the woman off the bus at a stop, Gilland got off with them, making sure the woman got to her next destination safely.
“When he saw something wrong, he would always step in and help,” Pohlman said.
‘A step in the right direction’
Gilland called his father Darryl Gilland, whom he’s named after, a few weeks ago.
He was excited. He had a new job and insurance. A friend at work offered him a house he could rent and fix up. The senior Gilland made plans to visit his son around Christmas time to help him chip away at renovations.
The younger Gilland called his father more. The elder Gilland told his son he was proud of him.
“He just found a reason to focus his life,” Gilland said. “He fell in love with this girl.”
Mullins, his sister, said the house was “a step in the right direction” for Gilland, adding, “he just felt like he was on the right track to finally make a difference and provide for Sam.”
But then the unexpected happened.
Family said Gilland had asked for his landlord’s help turning the heat on in his home, and to use a space heater on Friday. When McBeth arrived, court records show, the landlord pulled out a knife and threatened Gilland and Pohlman, who ran next door for help.
Pohlman told police that McBeth brandished a long, hunting-style knife from a sheath and allegedly pointed the knife at Gilland. McBeth said something to the effect of, “if that doesn’t work I’ll just kill you,” prosecutors allege.
When Pohlman returned from the neighbors’, Gilland had been stabbed multiple times. According to charging documents, one neighbor ran over, pulled out a handgun and ordered McBeth to stop and lay on the ground until police arrived.
McBeth, of Kansas City, now faces second-degree murder and armed criminal action, court records show.
Family posted a fundraiser on GoFundMe page, asking for help bringing Gilland’s body back to Indiana, to be buried beside his grandparents. As of Thursday afternoon, they had raised more than $12,000. Any additional money raised will be for Pohlman.
“The only way I know to honor my brother is to make sure that (Pohlman) is safe here, because she has nothing,” Mullins said. “And I will make sure that she’s taken care of the exact way that he would have taken care of her.”
This story was originally published October 28, 2021 at 1:56 PM.
