The football fan who hosted a party that ended with three of his friends dead at his Kansas City rental property was “asleep on the couch” for two days while their loved ones frantically tried to contact him, his lawyer said.
David Harrington, 37, Ricky Johnson, 38, and Clayton McGeeney, 36 had gathered at a house rented by Jordan Willis on the afternoon of Jan. 7 to watch their favorite football team play their last game of the regular season.
The three visitors were found dead at the NW 83rd Terrace home two days later, and only after the fiancée of one of the victims broke into his home and found the bodies, according to a friend’s Facebook post.
“He was asleep. He was asleep on the couch. The last memory he has is of them leaving [out] the front door, he doesn’t know what happened, um, with them, until you know, when the police came Tuesday night to his house,” Willis’ lawyer John Picerno told The Post about the Missouri mystery.
He added that Kansas City investigators had said there was no foul play and they were not investigating his client in connection with the bizarre and inexplicable deaths.
“They’ve said that there is no foul play, they don’t suspect it, and it’s not treated as a homicide investigation,” the lawyer said.
“This case is 100% NOT being investigated as a homicide,” Kansas City police Capt. Jake Becchina told Fox News Digital.
Kansas City police did not respond to requests for comment from The Post.
A pending toxicology report will shed more light on the incident, especially as the men were found outside while their cars and Willis’ warm house were just yards away.
“It was really cold. You know, they could have gone out to get fresh air, they could have gone out to smoke a cigarette,” Picerno speculated Tuesday.
“Maybe the bathroom was occupied, they could have gone out to go to the bathroom, after a whole day of watching football, it was late at night.”
Temperatures on Jan. 7 and 8 mostly stayed in the low 30s, before plummeting into the teens on the afternoon of Jan. 9, according to Weather Underground.
Picerno insisted that his client — who works as an HIV vaccine development scientist — would have done anything in his power to come to the aid of Harrington, Johnson and McGeeney.
“They were his buddies … They hung out all the time, two of them he went to high school with,” Picerno said, adding that Willis had bought them all tickets to the Chiefs’ playoff game the next weekend against Miami.
“If he could have helped them, he would have helped them if they needed help. He had no idea they were back there.”
When asked if there was a chance that the men had been doing drugs and suffered overdoses, Picerno did not rule it out.
“There’s a chance of everything,” he said.
Willis could not be reached for comment and had moved out of the rental property and scrubbed his social media accounts after the tragedy, the Daily Mail reported.
Friends of the victims had taken to social media to contend that Willis was partially responsible for the strange deaths, which seem to raise as many questions as the frozen bodies found in the latest season of “True Detective.”
“This man was inside his home alive while my friends were dead in his yard for lord knows how long,” Kaylee La Tier wrote in a Facebook post earlier this month.
“They were all hanging out since after the game Sunday. He KNEW people were looking for them. He read messages of people searching for him on Tuesday.
“My husband banged on his door for 20 [minutes],” La Tier continued.
“My friend banged on his door and then busted a window and yelled and announced her presence while she’s inside and still nothing from him? Then the cops come 10 [minutes] later and he comes out nonchalant in his boxers with an empty wine glass in hand??!
“Nothing is adding up. Dave, Clay and Ricky need and deserve justice.”
La Tier did not immediately respond to an interview request from The Post.
Johnson’s niece Stephanie Walling paid tribute to her uncle on a fundraising site set up to help pay for funeral expenses.
“This tragedy has left our family utterly devastated and mourning a tremendous loss. Ricky was not only an adored father to his three beautiful daughters, but also a cherished son, brother, uncle, and friend.”
A commenter on the page was incredulous.
“With a friend like that … Just doesn’t make sense. My thoughts are with you.”
A celebration of life was held for Harrington during Kansas City’s defeat of the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Divisional Series on Sunday.
Funerals for Johnson and McGeeney were set to be held on Friday and Saturday in suburban Missouri.
