Bizarre Macon murder trial postponed after key witness tests positive for COVID
One of the most unusual murder trials in recent Macon history — that of a man accused of killing a man whose body was never found — was postponed Monday after a key witnesses was said to have tested positive for COVID.
Jury selection in the trial of Raymond Eugene Leverett of Warner Robins had been set to begin Monday afternoon in Bibb County Superior Court. The trial is now expected to begin in mid-September.
The case involves the September 19, 2018, vanishing of John Lewis Fleming III, a man Leverett, a shade-tree mechanic, had done automobile-repair work for.
A blood-stained car that Fleming was believed to have been driving was found a few weeks after he disappeared. The car had been abandoned along Waterville Road near Eisenhower Parkway just south of downtown Macon. Two bullet shell casings found inside or near the car have, according to investigators, been linked to a gun that Leverett allegedly borrowed.
One courtroom observer said that if Leverett is found guilty it would be just the second such successful prosecution in Georgia history in which an alleged murder victim’s body was never found.
Word of the postponement came at about midday Monday.
A second prospective witness was also said to have contracted COVID while a third prosecution witness, a Bibb sheriff’s deputy, had a death in his family.
It was unclear if other murder cases would proceed this week as courthouse officials here mulled temporary postponements amid the statewide coronavirus surge.
This story was originally published August 16, 2021 at 2:50 PM.