Pennington Gap, VA WM, 34 shot to death in his own back yard; negro gets 39 years free room & board

[voiceofreason]

http://www.timesnews.net/Local/2019/...ton-Gap-murder

Norton man pleads guilty to 2018 Pennington Gap murder
May 7, 2019 at 10:03 AM



JONESVILLE — 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.

Cridlin said that the first-degree charge carries a maximum life prison sentence, while state sentencing guidelines call for a range of 20-40 years.

“Those are guidelines, but the judge can choose a longer sentence,” Cridlin said. “We will be asking for the maximum.”

A two-day sentencing hearing is set for Sept. 18-19 in Jonesville Circuit Court.

https://www.provincefuneralhome.com/notices/Lee-Lipps


Lee David Lipps
November 11, 1983 ~ August 28, 2018 (age 34)

[voiceofreason]

https://www.heraldcourier.com/news/n...1bc54ef3e.html

Norton man receives 39-year sentence in Pennington Gap murder case
Feb 5, 2020

A Norton, Virginia, man, who was accused of “coldly hunting down and killing someone in broad daylight,” will spend 39 years behind bars.

Leon Tyler Smith, 26, appeared in Lee County Circuit Court on Wednesday for a sentencing hearing after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in May 2019.

Commonwealth’s Attorney H. Fuller Cridlin said Smith shot a man, identified in court records as Lee David Lipps, 34, of Pennington Gap, on Aug. 28, 2018. He was shot four times and died at the hospital.