A 5th man who attended a Kansas City Chiefs watch party says three friends who were later found dead in the backyard were alive when he left.
Police say Jordan Willis told them that his friends, David Harrington, 37, Ricky Johnson, 38, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, “froze to death” in the backyard of his rented house after they attended a watch party on January 7.
Police found the three bodies in his backyard on January 9 after the fiancée of one of the men broke into the house and found one body on an enclosed back porch.
A man who also attended the watch party spoke anonymously with FOX4 Kansas City on Tuesday. The man insisted the three friends were alive and sober when he left the house at midnight.
The man said Harrington, Johnson, McGeeney and Willis were sitting on the sofa watching “Jeopardy” on TV when he left.
However, Willis’ attorney disputes the man’s story.
Attorney John Picerno claims Willis left the four men and went upstairs to bed. Picerno said Willis doesn’t know what time they left the house.
The attorney said Willis never told police that his three friends “froze to death.”
Picerno’s version of events has changed several times. He initially said Willis “waved” his friends off as they left his home through the front door. Then he “crashed” on his sofa before going up to his bedroom.
In an interview with NewsNation on Friday night, Picerno said Willis left the home “sporadically” on Monday and Tuesday.
However, on Tuesday, Picerno told the NY Post that he misspoke.
“What I meant to say on NewsNation is that he left — he was sleeping, and he left his bedroom sporadically,” he said.
Picerno claims Willis never looked outside and didn’t leave his house on Monday or Tuesday. That’s why he didn’t notice his friends’ cars were still parked in the street outside the home for 3 days.
In interviews, Picerno claimed his client’s two pit-bull mix breed dogs were at his father’s house during the watch party.
On Tuesday, the fiancée of one of the men broke a basement window to get into the house after Willis did not respond to loud banging and yelling for 20 minutes.
She found a body inside the enclosed porch of the house (pictured) and then called police, who arrived to find Willis in his boxers, holding a wine glass.
Picerno says the wine glass contained water.
After obtaining a search warrant, police found 2 more bodies in the backyard.
Picerno says Willis did not hear the banging on his door because he sleeps with noise canceling headphones and a loud fan on. He also claims Willis did not see their Facebook messages until after the police arrived.
However, friends say read notifications prove Willis saw their messages in Facebook Messenger, but he did not respond to them.
The mystery man also said he sent a text message to Willis after being contacted by family members of one of the men. The mystery man said Willis did not respond to his text.
FOX4 News asked Picerno about the discrepancy, but he declined to comment.
Family members aren’t buying Willis’ story.
“It’s got a lot of holes in it. Like last time he saw them, they were leaving the house, but he didn’t know they had left. That doesn’t make much sense,” Caleb McGeeney, cousin of Clayton McGeeney told FOX4 in an interview Monday.
Family and friends theorize that the three men were drugged and then dragged outside. One of the men managed to crawl back to the house before he expired on the porch.
“Somebody has to end up in custody over it regardless of any situation. They are at your house and three people are dead,” Caleb said.
“He has nothing to hide,” Picerno said of Willis. “He went to the police station and spoke with officers without a lawyer present, he allowed them to search his home… these were his friends.”
Willis is an accomplished scientist, who was praised for his work on COVID and HIV vaccines.
According to an interview that Willis gave to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative’s website in 2022, he is the senior principal scientist at the IAVI Neutralizing Antibody Center in Kansas City.
Willis has since taken leave from his job while the investigation continues.
Picerno said Willis deleted all of his social media. He also moved out of the rental house because he feared retaliation from the families.
“He had absolutely nothing to do with their deaths,” Picerno told DailyMail.com.
Police are awaiting toxicology reports before moving forward with the “death investigation.”
There is no evidence of foul play and the three deaths are not being investigated as homicides, according to police.
This post was originally published on January 23, 2024.
