HAMPTON, Va. — A multi-million-dollar settlement was secured against a landlord who was sentenced for racially harassing and evicting tenants from his homes, according to a press release sent by Attorney General Jay Jones' office on Thursday.
David Merryman was sentenced to 17 years in prison after he plead guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and race-based interference with housing and employment back in 2024.
The attorney general outlined details of the settlement, which includes a monetary settlement of $2,250,000 to compensate tenants that were victims of Merryman's discriminatory behavior. Additionally, he will be forced to sell his rental properties in Virginia, expunge eviction filings from the records of his former tenants and he will be barred from becoming a landlord in the commonwealth moving forward.
Watch previous coverage: 'Uninhabitable,' Hampton landlord who racially harassed, evicted tenants gets 17 years
"The court found that for years, Merryman harassed and abused his tenants by calling them racist, sexist, and homophobic epithets, refusing to complete basic repairs to make their homes habitable, evicting tenants who requested those basic repairs, and, in some cases, even threatening violence to tenants who simply requested that Merryman fulfill his legal duties as a landlord," a press release from Jones' office reads.
The 62 properties owned by Merryman were located in low-income neighborhoods in Hampton and Newport News. He primarily rented to Black tenants who prosecutors describe as underprivileged with limited credit and housing options.
Court documents previously obtained by News 3 say Merryman made threats of force to Black tenants. One former tenant recounted her experience with Merryman in an interview with News 3 back in 2024.
Watch previous coverage: Hampton landlord charged, indicted for harassing Black tenants & defrauding government
"It was a nightmare," Samantha Feeley, a former tenant of Merryman, said. "He was the slumlord from hell."
Feeley said Merryman was her landlord for about a year in Hampton. She said she fell behind on rent during the pandemic and says Merryman sent her a text with racial slurs.
"He called me a N**** lover and told me that I didn’t pay my bills like other White people do," Feeley said. "I had Black roommates so that was a problem with him."
Prosecutors outlined how Merryman ran a multi-faceted scheme while renting these properties from 2019 until at least January 2024. Part of the scheme included committing fraud to get rent relief benefits from the government during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors said he used tenants' names and information, forging their signatures to apply for rent relief — all behind their backs. He would then pocket the relief money, and in many cases, he'd evict or threaten to evict the tenants whose identities he used to commit fraud.
Merryman's crimes also included receiving payments from his tenants for repairs without ever intending to fix the "neglected, even uninhabitable" homes, prosecutors argued.
"There was a time my heat went out and I had to pay HVAC to come fix it or my kids would have froze. We had holes in the floor," Feeley said.
Heather Burchett, who paid $1,500 a month while renting a home from Merryman, said she experienced this first-hand.
"When I moved in, he told me that the HVAC system did not work and that he was going to get it fixed," Burchett said. "The first couple of months I paid rent, I kept asking him about it."
She said she also had faulty windows, mice and a duct taped stove—none of which were fixed during her time as Merryman's tenant. She rented from him for nearly a year.
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