Valerie Friend can expect a mandatory life sentence after pleading guilty to a cocaine conspiracy charge and to witness retaliation by killing. Under her plea deal with federal prosecutors, Friend also agreed to cooperate in their case against co-defendant George ‘‘Porgy’’ Lecco — and anyone else involved in the slaying of Carla Collins or the drug dealing that led to her death.
U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. did not immediately set a sentencing date for Friend, who like Lecco, remains jailed.
The retaliation by killing charge is part of a 12-count indictment against Friend, 47, and Lecco, 60. Each faced separate retrials on those charges, and that count and two others carry the death penalty.
Although West Virginia abolished capital punishment for state crimes in 1965, it remains an option in federal cases. With the approval of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, prosecutors have withdrawn the death penalty in Friend’s case, they told Copenhaver.
Both she and Lecco had been found guilty in the case in 2007, and the jury recommended death sentences. But Copenhaver granted a new trial because one of the jurors had failed to disclose a criminal record that included drug convictions and a then-pending federal child pornography probe.
Friend told the judge she killed Collins, a 33-year-old single mother, on Lecco’s orders to protect his Mingo County drug ring. A convicted drug felon, Lecco sold cocaine out of his Red Jacket drive-thru pizza parlor, the charges allege.
Friend said Lecco enlisted her to kill Collins through one of his dealers, Patricia Burton, who also relayed a pistol from him to her.
Lecco had suggested Collins to investigators as an informant after they raided his Pizza Plus in February 2005. He had been cooperating with them, but later tried to resume dealing, prosecutors allege.
Burton said ‘‘Carla had told on George Lecco for continuing to sell drugs, and because he still had a firearm,’’ Friend said. ‘‘She said that George Lecco wanted Carla dead. She was supposed to be helping him, but she was working behind his back.’’
Friend said she, Burton and friend Carmella Blankenship drove around with Collins for several hours one night in April 2005, stopping here and there to use cocaine. They ended up at an abandoned mobile home, where Friend said she shot Collins. Besides a gunshot wound to the chest, Collins was beaten in the head, perhaps with a rock, Assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Wright told Copenhaver. Her body was found in a shallow grave nearby.
Burton, 40, pleaded guilty to aiding in Collins’ death, while Blankenship received an immunity deal. Both testified against Lecco and Friend at their trial. Four others, including Burton’s husband, admitted to roles in the drug ring or to helping conceal evidence of the murder.
Lecco’s trial date has not been set. Besides a mandatory life term for the witness killing, Friend faces a 20-year sentence for conspiracy as well as fines totaling $1.25 million. Wright noted that Friend is unable even to pay the $200 in court fees in the case, and will have to pay those off by working in prison.
Friend must also pay restitution. Those costs include $1,250 to the state’s indigent burial program, $250 to Collin’s family for a funeral urn, and unspecified counseling expenses for Collins’ children.
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