Mocobizscene-A judge on Monday imposed a 25-year prison term and five years of probation on a woman, 25, who had plotted with her twin sister to have her boyfriend kill her brother.
A jury found Leaundra Matthews guilty in August of killing her 17-year-old brother Christian Matthews in their Silver Spring, Maryland, home in 2017. Leaundra Matthews was the driver to and from the murder scene, and the prosecutors described her as playing a “integral” role in the scheme to kill her brother.
Because he was unable to provide proof of his client’s brother’s abuse during the trial, her attorney Jeffrey Zahler informed the local news website MoCo360 that he intends to appeal the case.
Zahler told the site, “Considering she was convicted of a second-degree murder, the sentence was a little higher than necessary.”
Tysean Lipford, 26, the boyfriend of Leaundra Matthews, was found guilty in 2019 of second-degree murder and is currently serving a 30-year jail sentence. The trial of Daniel Howard, a 27-year-old man who is suspected of holding Christian Matthews down while Lipford strangled him to death, is set for July. Furthermore, in October 2021, Lemae Matthews, Leaundra’s twin sister, entered a guilty plea to accessory after the fact to murder. She will be punished subsequent to Howard’s trial.
When Montgomery County officers arrived at the Silver Spring residence on March 21, 2017, they discovered Christian Matthews was not breathing. He was taken to the hospital by first responders, where medical professionals declared him dead. He had bruises around his neck, which the officers saw, and an autopsy showed that homicide was the cause of death and asphyxia was the mode of death.
When Leaundra Matthews heard a disturbance in the basement, she was upstairs in her bedroom, she said police, and she discovered her brother unconscious before dialing 911. In an interview with detectives two days after the murder, Lipford allegedly confessed to killing his girlfriend’s brother, according to an arrest document. Lipford claimed that because he had threatened to hurt his girlfriend and their child, they wanted him dead.
Lipford and his girlfriend are shown following out the plan in their text chats to one other. Leaundra Matthews disapproved when Lipford first declared earlier in the evening that he wanted to carry out the murder.
“And trust meee, your idea is not a good one.” According to the affidavit, she texted her partner, “I’m not gonna let yall do it iff yall don’t do it how i said cuz its a whole bunch of stuff yall aint think about.”
She reportedly stated that if they acted later in the night, fewer neighbors would be up and hence fewer possible eyewitnesses.
According to the affidavit, Leaundra Matthews picked up Lipford and Howard from a different residence and brought them to her home. In order to make it appear like a robbery, she also instructed them to smash a glass window and loot the residence. She opened the rear door and gave him a pair of disposable gloves. When Christian Matthews was sound sleeping, they waited outside.
According to the complaint, she drove Howard and her boyfriend back to the house she had picked them up from after meeting them close following the murder.
Leaundra Matthews told her mother and aunt what she had done two years after the murder. The affidavit states that she was “straight faced” and exhibited no remorse during her confession. “It had to be done,” she declared. He was not going to stop, so he had to leave.
Was the goal solely to harm him, her mother questioned.
Also Read:
- DC police: Man fatally shot in parking lot day care car
- Police Sniper Fatally Shoots Suspected Bank Robber who took two hostages in Florida
- French Quarter snake confiscated by New Orleans Police officers
