LAGRANGE, Ga. — A man will spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing another man while he sat on the phone with his girlfriend in his driveway on New Year's Day in 2021.
The district attorney in Troup County, John H. Cranford Jr. announced the conviction and sentence Monday for 26-year-old Camron Downing in the murder of Keenen Leonard in LaGrange.
According to the District Attorney's Office, investigators ultimately determined that Downing had no connection to Leonard or his girlfriend, and shot him with "no motive." A release said Downing fired five times into Leonard's car, hitting him three times.
"At the time of the shooting, Leonard was on the phone with his girlfriend, parked in the driveway of their home, with food he had just purchased for them. His girlfriend heard the gunshots over the phone and from inside the house," the release stated. "She came outside to find Leonard dead in the driver’s seat."
Downing had initially claimed he was lost in LaGrange and that when he asked Leonard for directions, his response started an argument and "he thought Leonard was going to shoot him first." But investigators determined Leonard did not have a weapon, and his girlfriend who was on the phone told police she "did not hear him speaking to anyone else at the time of the shooting."
Police were eventually able to determine a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum revolver was the likely murder weapon and evidence suggested Downing would have had one. After admitting to the shooting while claiming self-defense, Downing told investigators where to find the revolver.
"The GBI ultimately confirmed that Downing’s revolver fired the bullets that killed Leonard," the release stated.
Cranford called the shooting a "senseless crime" in a statement.
"For taking Keenen Leonard from his family and loved ones without any apparent reason, it is just that Downing never be released from prison," the district attorney said.
