Miami Beach

Suspect in Gruesome Miami Beach Samurai Sword Murder Extradited to South Florida

Nicholas Gibson, 34, facing first-degree murder charge in 2019 killing of Erik Stocker

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A suspect accused of killing an elderly Miami Beach man with a samurai sword more than two years ago has been extradited to South Florida.

Nicholas Brent Gibson, 34, was booked into the Miami-Dade County jail Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge, records show.

Gibson made his first appearance in court Wednesday morning, where a judge ordered him held without bond.

Gibson is charged in the killing of 77-year-old Erik Stocker, whose badly decomposing body was found on April 30, 2019, in his apartment in the 1500 block of Michigan Avenue. Neighbors had alerted authorities after noticing a foul odor coming from the apartment.

Miami-Dade Corrections
Nicholas Gibson

Investigators said they believe Stocker had been killed at least 10 days earlier.

According to an arrest warrant, a samurai sword was found inserted into Stocker's body, and another one stained with blood was next to the body. Stocker's legs were bound at the ankles with a bedsheet, the warrant said.

The warrant said several $100 bills were found near Stocker's body and on the wall, where the words "Rome Must Fall" were found written in what appeared to be blood.

A neighbor told investigators that Gibson had been living with Stocker for about two months and was believed to be Stocker's caretaker following Stocker's pancreatic surgery, the report said.

One witness told police they had seen a man with tattoos on his face leaving Stocker's apartment carrying a samurai sword in a sheath, the warrant said.

The warrant said Gibson bought a Greyhound ticket from Miami to New York using Stocker's credit card, and used Stocker's credit cards 29 times between April 18 and April 24, 2019.

Gibson was found on May 5, 2019 in Manhattan, where he was taken into custody on a federal probation warrant for failing to report to probation within 72 hours of his release from federal prison, the warrant said.

After he was taken into custody, Gibson told detectives he had been involved in six other murders "during earlier times in his life," police said. Gibson said the murders happened in Florida, Georgia and California, police said.

At the time, police said they couldn't corroborate Gibson's alleged involvement in other murders but said detectives were evaluating the information he gave them and working with law enforcement organizations in those locations to determine the credibility of his statements.

As he was being taken to jail in New York, Gibson told reporters he had killed Stocker "with my bare hands." When reporters asked if he used a sword, he replied "yes, a big one."

Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show Gibson is a registered sex offender.

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