A human head was found in an apartment refrigerator. The resident is charged with murder

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City man has been accused of stabbing a man to death after a drug dispute and cutting his body into parts that were kept in a Brooklyn apartment refrigerator for two years, prosecutors said Friday.

Nicholas McGee, 45, was charged with murder, robbery, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with evidence in connection with the killing of 39-year-old Kawsheen Gelzer in March 2022, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez’s office said in a statement after McGee was arraigned in court.

Gelzer’s remains were found on Jan. 22 in the apartment McGee shared with his wife, Heather Stines, 45, authorities said. Stines was also arrested and charged with concealment of a human corpse, hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence, the DA’s office said.

Phone and text messages were left for McGee’s lawyer. Stines’ lawyer did not return a text message.

In new details released publicly Friday, Gonzalez’s office alleged McGee stabbed Gelzer in the back while he slept on a sofa in McGee and Stines’ apartment. Gelzer woke up and struggled with McGee, who stabbed Gelzer again multiple times, hit him with a hammer and then stole drugs from Gelzer’s pocket, the DA’s office said.

McGee then dismembered Gelzer’s body with a small saw and hammer, placed most of the body parts in plastic bags and put the bags in a suitcase that he stored in the refrigerator, Gonzalez’s office said. Gelzer’s head and torso were put in the refrigerator and his arms and legs were stored in the freezer, the DA’s office said.

“This was a gruesome and horrific murder that we allege began with an attack on the victim as he slept,” Gonzalez said in the statement. “We will now seek to hold the defendant accountable for this senseless crime.”

Police found the body in January while responding to the apartment on an anonymous tip that Stines was keeping a body in her refrigerator, prosecutors said. Stines was arrested that day, police said.

McGee was arrested in Chesapeake, Virginia, where court records said he was on probation for an attempted identity theft case, and brought to Brooklyn on Thursday, the DA’s office said.

A Brooklyn judge ordered McGee held without bail and to return to court on Monday.