He got a butcher knife and blacked out. Now he’s going to prison

A Houston County jury deliberated for nearly five hours over two days before finding a Kathleen man guilty Friday of voluntary manslaughter in the butcher knife stabbing of his nephew.

Leon Springer, 49, was also found guilty of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon during a crime. Jurors found him not guilty of malice murder and felony murder.

Judge Katherine K. Lumsden sentenced him immediately afterward to the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

“You completely lost it, and you killed a man,” Lumsden told Springer. “And your life will be changed, and your family will do without you while you are in the penitentiary.

“But you will be alive. They can visit. They can write. And you will get out. The jury has assured that with their verdict,” she said.

Springer’s mother broke down in tears and wails of grief in the courtroom as the judge explained to Springer his sentence, and he was led away by sheriff’s deputies.

Springer had asked the judge for mercy, including probation for the killing.

“My family needs me as well as they needed Shaun,” Springer told the judge. “Taking two lives, that won’t bring Shaun back ... Putting me in prison, that’s taking my life just as well as I took Shuan’s.”

His niece, Tonya Lawson, who witnessed him stab her brother and testified against him at trial, said her brother loved his family, enjoyed cooking, cleaning and watching movies, and his favorite colors were purple and red.

“This has been a very hard year,” she told the judge. “We lost our mother, my brother and Leon Springer.”

Thursday, Springer testified that he snapped after his nephew pushed him and threatened to kill him at an after-party at the home he shared with his mother on West Houston Road shortly before 3 a.m. Sept. 27, 2015.

His nephew, 40-year-old Shaun Lawson, died on the way to the hospital from stab wounds to the head and chest.

Both men had been drinking and argued over a cup of vodka.

Springer and family members testified at the trial that Lawson had a history of bullying Springer and harassed him at his mother’s 90th birthday party the previous night and then at the after-party that spilled into the next morning.

Russell Walker, a Perry attorney representing Springer, argued the stabbing was an act of passion, and Springer was guilty of a lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter. Springer testified he blacked out during the stabbing.

But lead prosecutor Dan Bibler argued Springer stabbed his nephew in a mad, drunken act of revenge, and he should be convicted of malice and felony murder.

Tonya Lawson testified that her brother had left the Kathleen home and then come back to the house to get his things when he was attacked by their uncle.

“He walked back to go get his bag, and then my uncle ran out of the kitchen and stabbed him in his head and then he stabbed him in his chest,” she said.

Her brother fell on his back in the living room floor. Blood poured from his stab wounds.

Sitting just a few feet away on the couch, Lawson said she immediately jumped up and started dialing 911 while positioning herself over her brother.

“I just tried to protect Shaun,” she said.

She said her uncle was behind her cursing and wishing her brother dead.

“He was in full rage. I’d never seen my uncle like that,” Lawson said.

Walker pointed out several inconsistencies in her testimony on the stand and her written and videotaped statements to authorities.

Lawson said she was traumatized by what she had witnessed and couldn’t remember what all she had said that morning to authorities. But she told jurors she was certain what she was telling them on the stand was accurate.

This story was originally published October 28, 2016 at 11:12 AM with the headline "He got a butcher knife and blacked out. Now he’s going to prison."