Marvin Jacob Lee, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle
A North Carolina man who opened fire on a group trying to help him from a stranded car during a snowstorm will serve a dozen years in prison for killing one of the Good Samaritans.
Twenty-nine-year-old Marvin Jacob Lee pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder and discharging a weapon into an occupied vehicle.
His lawyer, Victoria Jayne, said he was sentenced to between 14 and 19 years in prison, but will be credited for two years already served in jail.
Authorities say Jefferson Heavner, 26, was shot after he and others came to help when Lee was found in a car on the side of a snowy Catawba County road in January 2016.
According to investigators, the group believed Lee was intoxicated and tried to take the car keys before he became belligerent.
Gunfire scattered the would-be helpers, and Heavner was shot multiple times, investigators said.
Jefferson Heavner with his 17-month-old-son. The single dad was shot dead by a Lee after Heavner stopped to help him get out of the snow
Police said Lee killed 26-year-old Jefferson Heavner (pictured on Facebook), who was among a group of people attempting to help Lee whose car had become stranded
Lee also fired into vehicles of others who had stopped to help. No one else was hurt.
The suspect was passed out in the car when the sheriff’s tactical team arrived to arrest him.
Jayne said in a phone interview Thursday that her client had been drinking and taking painkillers before the shooting and still doesn’t remember it.
She said it appears that someone else had been driving and left her client asleep in the car.
When someone reached in to take the keys, she believes her client was startled and felt like he was in danger.
‘That’s what startled Marvin, and in that unconscious state of mind, he came out of the car and started firing,’ she said.
Still, she added: ‘He has great remorse, but he doesn’t have any memory of doing that.’
Attorney Victoria Jayne holds the Bible for Marvin Jacob Lee during a court session in 2016
Several of Heavner’s family members including his mother, Lena Eidson, addressed Lee during his hearing Wednesday in a Catawba County courtroom.
‘My boy is gone, and I can’t bring him back. There’s nothing done here today that can change that,’ Eidson said.
Heavner, who had a 17-month-old son at the time of the killing, grew up in the area.
He had a tradition of using his truck to help drivers out of ditches during snowstorms in the western North Carolina county, his sister said in the days after the shooting.
Jessica Heavner said that helping others out of snowy jams was something their late father had started.
‘We always had some type of 4-wheel drive vehicle, and we would go out and look for people who had spun out in the ditches,’ Jessica said in a 2016 phone interview. ‘It was something we always did to help out people in the community.’
Police said Lee returned to his car (pictured), which was still stuck, after he shot Heavner once before shooting him again multiple times
Officers arrived on the scene and demanded Lee get out of the car. When he did not a SWAT team arrived and pulled him out of the car and it was discovered he had passed out