George ‘‘Porgy’’ Lecco was convicted on 12 charges that also allege he sold cocaine out of his Mingo County pizza parlor, illegally possessed guns as a felon, and helped cover up the slaying of 33-year-old Carla Collins.
The single mother’s body was found in a shallow grave in June 2005. She had been shot and beaten to death in a nearby mobile home two months earlier.
Lecco, 60, was similarly found guilty after a 2007 trial. Those results were upended by a juror’s misconduct.
The retrial jury deliberated for about nine hours over three days before issuing verdicts on the dozen counts, including three murder-related charges that each carry a possible federal death penalty.
Wearing a white striped Oxford shirt and khaki pants, Lecco lowered his gaze from the jury and shook his head when he heard the first verdict for those.
U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver Jr. told jurors to return Wednesday to hear further evidence and then decide whether to recommend capital punishment on any of those three counts. West Virginia abolished the death penalty for state crimes 45 years ago, but it remains an option for federal cases filed there.
State Police had raided Lecco’s Pizza Plus in Red Jacket for drugs when he agreed to become an informant. He also enlisted Collins, with whom he had been romantically involved, to aid investigators as well.
But prosecutors allege that Lecco turned on Collins because she knew he had resumed selling cocaine despite his deal with authorities. Lecco’s defense argued that he had no reason to target her, as he was already facing a hefty prison sentence from the bust.
Prosecutors declined comment after the verdicts, citing the upcoming sentencing phase. Defense lawyers were conferring with Lecco, who has been in custody since his 2005 arrest, and were not immediately available for comment.
The 2007 jury had found Lecco guilty along with Valerie Friend, one of two women who admit to carrying out the killing. Copenhaver threw out those verdicts last year, after finding that one of those jurors had lied about his criminal record.
While awaiting retrial, Friend pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and to killing a witness as retaliation. As part of an agreement that allows her to avoid the death penalty, Friend testified against Lecco last week.
But neither side called the other admitted killer, Patricia Burton, during the seven-day retrial. She pleaded guilty in the case in late 2005, and alleges Lecco had her kill Collins in exchange for drugs. But she has also given conflicting statements to investigators, which the defense seized on to challenge her credibility and the prosecution’s case.
Lecco’s lawyers told the jury that Burton was jealous of the younger, prettier Collins, and that she and Friend killed her in a fit of anger after a night of driving around Mingo County and snorting cocaine.
At least four other people pleaded guilty in the case to charges linking them to the drug dealing or to hiding or destroying evidence of the murder. Prosecutors said these accomplices helped bury Collins’ body, torch the vacant mobile home where she was killed, and dump items from the scene in nearby Kentucky.
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