The man who was arrested and accused of stealing from the Wyatt Earp birthplace is out of jail and speaking out against his accusers.
Kelly Samande lived in the historic home and cared for it. In October, News 8 interviewed Samande, who was asking for $10,000 in donations to repair and restore the house. That interview never aired, because in the days afterwards, police arrested Samande and charged him with felony theft.
The historic home's owners, Melba and Bob Matson, are elderly and live on assisted living in Mason City, Iowa. They rented it out to Semande, with the understanding he would fix the place up and one day buy it.
"A former landlord told us he'd bought our water heater and our refrigerator; and he was selling other items also from our house," Melba said. "It's been hard, we trusted him and he was a veteran. We were going to give him a chance. But we didn't know the status of the house until we saw it on Facebook that it was a mess."
Now out of jail, Samande said he never took anything from the home. He said everything missing from the home was either being repaired or was stolen by someone else.
"Why would I steal? Every dime that I got went there," Samande said. "Only thing I was trying to do was preserve a part of our history, a part of our life."
Both parties hope someone will take the historic house over and help make the needed repairs.
"We have had to close it down because nobody can get in and nobody can live there. It's just a real problem right now," Matson said.
"Something that famous shouldn't be demolished just because of stupidity," said Samande.
Samande has a preliminary hearing set for next week. He is charged with felony theft, a class three felony, and faces two to five years in prison.