Tuesday, May 29, 2007
A Federal Grand Jury Recommends Death for Two Mingo Residents
A federal grand jury has sentenced two Mingo Co residents found guilty of the 2005 murder of Carla Collins. The 33 year-old was working undercover as a drug informant.
George Lecco, 57, of Red Jacket and Valerie Friend, 44 of North Matewan, face execution after the jury came to the unanimous decision Tuesday afternoon. Prosecutors said Lecco asked Friend to kill Collins, who was providing information to a federal drug task force. Lecco ordered the killing so he could protect his cocaine ring that was being ran out of his Red Jacket Pizza Parlor. Investigators’ found Collins’ body in a shallow grave at Newtown, not far from the burned-out remains of an abandoned trailer where she was shot and beat to death. West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1963. Federal prosecutors indicted Friend and Lecco with federal murder charges which carry the death penalty.
Lecco and Friend will be formally sentenced on August 23rd.
George Lecco, 57, of Red Jacket and Valerie Friend, 44 of North Matewan, face execution after the jury came to the unanimous decision Tuesday afternoon. Prosecutors said Lecco asked Friend to kill Collins, who was providing information to a federal drug task force. Lecco ordered the killing so he could protect his cocaine ring that was being ran out of his Red Jacket Pizza Parlor. Investigators’ found Collins’ body in a shallow grave at Newtown, not far from the burned-out remains of an abandoned trailer where she was shot and beat to death. West Virginia abolished the death penalty in 1963. Federal prosecutors indicted Friend and Lecco with federal murder charges which carry the death penalty.
Lecco and Friend will be formally sentenced on August 23rd.
# posted by Joe Kinzer @ 1:11 PM 
