A Maryland man has stabbed to death a religious leader after he became convinced he was ‘spiritually controlling’ his wife.
Daniel Patrick Degoto, 41, told police he had used to car to run down Pastor Raphael Michael Happy-Ikenwilo, before finishing him off with a hunting knife.
Happy-Ikenwilo, of Maryland, was rushed to hospital with ‘multiple deep lacerations to his head’ but pronounced dead that afternoon on Saturday.
Daniel Patrick Degoto, 41, (left) told police he had used to car to run down Pastor Raphael Michael Happy-Ikenwilo, (right) before finishing him off with a hunting knife
Degoto has since been charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail, WBALTV reports.
The 41-year-old, who turned himself in on Saturday, explained he’d attacked the pastor because he’d noticed a change in his wife Rosine since she started attending Rahamis Ministry-International Church last year.
Degoto thought Happy-Ikenwilo was ‘spiritually controlling his wife’s thoughts and actions,’ according to charging documents.
‘I tried to control it, but I can’t control it,’ he told police. ‘It was too much. Today was the end of it. Something had to be done.’
Police said Degoto had dropped off his wife at Happy-Ikenwilo’s Windsor Mill home (pictured) on Saturday morning but as the pastor was in the parking lot, taking items out of his trunk, Degoto ran him down
Degoto (left) thought Happy-Ikenwilo (right) was ‘spiritually controlling his wife’s thoughts and actions,’ according to charging documents
‘That’s a terrible and horrible thing,’ Frank House, another pastor who lives near the crime scene, told Fox.
‘It’s just a sad time we’re living in right now. The value of life is just not seeming important. We have to see and realize all lives are important.’
Happy-Ikenwilo, who described himself as a ‘prophet’, came to the U.S. from Africa in 2012.
A fundraising page for his ministry says it’s focus is ‘the fulfillment of God’s promise to heal the African continent and the black race.’
Happy-Ikenwilo believed he was on a special assignment from God to investigate and cure cancer that originates from the fourth dimension.
In a post on IndieGogo he claims, he attended the spiritual university in 2005 as ‘Doctor of Spiritual Sciences, having been taught by the angels for 12 years’.
He claims that God spoke to him and sent him to the US for a special assignment to heal cancer sufferers.
Police said Degoto had dropped off his wife at Happy-Ikenwilo’s Windsor Mill home on Saturday morning but as the pastor was in the parking lot, taking items out of his trunk, Degoto ran him down.
He then repeatedly stabbed him in the the head, leg and neck.
Degoto said he’d tried to stop himself but ‘I can’t control it.
‘It was too much,’ he told police. ‘Today was the end of it. Something had to be done.’