Man to serve life sentence after guilty verdict in 2018 Macon murder case
A man will serve a life sentence after a Bibb County jury found him guilty of murder, according to court proceedings.
Raymond Leverett will serve a life sentence after jurors found him guilty of malice murder and armed robbery Friday evening, according to court proceedings. He was convicted of killing John “J3” Fleming in September 2018, with Assistant District Attorney Tony May saying before the jury deliberated that his life “was cut short by the deadly grip of another person’s debt.”
Fleming’s family and friends, who filled up half the courtroom, were present from the start of the trial to its conclusion.
“I’m deeply mindful that many of you have been present throughout these past two weeks, and that this process, at times, has been long and painful,” Judge Connie Williford, who presided over the case, said before issuing her sentence. “On behalf of this court, I offer you sincere sympathy for your loss and for the endurance you have shown in remaining present for this process.”
“Nothing that occurs here can undo what has been done. But please know that this court has solemn respect for the life of John Fleming III and the remarkable love and strength of his large family and many friends,” Williford said.
Leverett will serve a life sentence for the murder charge and 20 years for the armed robbery charge.
A skull and three bones
Jurors heard evidence for roughly two weeks regarding what transpired before and after Fleming’s death, including his connection to Leverett, who would end up killing him.
Though Fleming and Leverett were friends, hard feelings developed days before the man’s death. Fleming gave Leverett, a mechanic, a Chevy to flip and sell, but he didn’t complete the job for about five months. Fleming bought a motor from Leverett to use for the Chevy, but it was “rusted out,” according to prosecutors.
It prompted Leverett to devise a plan to kill Fleming, prosecutors argued.
Fleming, at Leverett’s request, drove him to a follow-up doctor’s appointment for a rattlesnake bite in September 2018. And though there was video evidence of him at the hospital, Leverett then lured Fleming to a warehouse around Riggins Mill and Weaver roads, where Fleming was shot twice.
Phone records indicated that both men were at the warehouse and a ditch until Fleming’s phone went offline and Leverett left the location. Investigators later recovered Fleming’s car, shell casings and blood at the warehouse, and a skull and three bones at the ditch.
Days after Fleming died, Leverett returned to the scene and stole Fleming’s PlayStation 4, which was in the car, and pawned it in Warner Robins. For that, he was charged with theft by deception and pleaded guilty in Houston County Superior Court.
Leverett was immediately considered a suspect, leading to his arrest and subsequent indictment, according to previous reporting from The Telegraph.
