Leon Tyler Smith.
There are quite a few mentions of the killer’s skin color in this news report.
Pretty racist, IMO.
You don’t see me bringing up race like that.
A Norton man pleaded guilty Monday to the August 2018 murder of a Pennington Gap man.
According to Lee County Commonwealth’s Attorney Fuller Cridlin, Leon Tyler Smith, 25, entered the plea of first-degree murder before county Circuit Court Judge Tammy McElyea in the death of Lee David Lipps on Aug. 28.
According to the original criminal complaint filed by Virginia State Police Special Agent A.W. Boyd, Lipps said before dying that a black man had shot him while he was in his back yard at his residence.
Boyd reported that a surveillance system at Lipps’ home captured video of a gold Toyota sedan driving near the residence. Two witnesses in the neighborhood told police that they saw a black man wearing a black and gold shirt near the victim’s home.
Norton police later found a Toyota matching the one in the video and arrested Smith as he approached the car. In a warrant search of Smith’s residence, investigators found a shirt matching the witnesses’ description as well as .380 caliber ammunition matching shells found at the shooting scene.
Boyd also stated in his report that surveillance video from the Jonesville Walmart placed Smith about five miles from Lipps’ home at 7:13 p.m. the day of the shooting. Lipps called 911 at 7:28 p.m., while his home surveillance system filmed the gold Toyota driving and parking in an adjacent lot at 7:24 p.m.
Testimony from witnesses placed a black man near Lipps’ home between 7:25 and 7:29 p.m.
Lee David Lipps.