I hope you weren’t expecting leniency, Leon.

The Jewdicial system does not look kindly upon those who prevent race mixing.

Bristol Herald Courier:

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.

During Wednesday’s, Cridlin said he presented evidence demonstrating that Smith had traveled from Norton to Pennington Gap for the sole purpose to kill Lipps, who owned Stone Mountain Naturals, a ginseng company.

Lipps was working in his yard at the time of the shooting.

…

The motive: Smith hated the victim, the prosecutor said.

“The defendant’s sister was engaged to the victim and the families were estranged,” Cridlin said. “The defendant made various allegations about the victim but all were contradicted by the victim’s fiancée.”

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.

Kingsport Times-News:

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.