Man gets 23 years for Valley stabbing

Stabbing a man to death while he was seat-belted in a car with a gun pointed at his head didn’t look like self-defense to the Spokane County jury that convicted Lance A. Leighton of second-degree murder.

Nor did it appear that way to Superior Court Judge Greg Sypolt, who sentenced the 24-year-old defendant Friday to 223/4 years in prison. Sypolt said the jury had already given Leighton a break last month by rejecting a first-degree murder charge.

Leighton’s sentence, including a two-year enhancement for use of a deadly weapon, was just four months shy of the standard maximum Deputy Prosecutor Steve Garvin sought. Defense attorney Bevan Maxey had urged Sypolt to impose less than the standard minimum of 143/4 years.

Maxey urged Sypolt to give consideration to Leighton’s failed self-defense claim and to recognize that everyone involved in the argument that led to the death of 21-year-old Jeffrey P. Bieber last May was drunk or high on methamphetamine. The crime outside a home at 612 N. Farr Road was Spokane Valley’s first murder after the city was incorporated in 2002.

Garvin asked Sypolt to consider that, for a young man, Leighton has a “very considerable criminal history” that includes car theft in Nevada and second-degree robbery.

The victim’s father, Tim Bieber, urged Sypolt to consider that the victim was “compassionate and caring,” and had been a good student and athlete at West Valley High School before becoming a drug user.

“He made me most proud when he showed that compassion and love,” Tim Bieber said.

Leighton had been drinking with Amanda Lloyd, Joe Legendre and Katherine Collins before the murder. Testimony indicated Legendre had a romantic interest in Collins and became jealous when she started to leave with Bieber and another man.

Maxey said Collins called Bieber and Michael R. Priestly to the home, apparently in hopes of trading a portable scale for drugs.

Legendre argued with Bieber and pointed what was either a real pistol or a realistic BB pistol at Bieber’s head, witnesses testified. Bieber had a water pistol that also looked like a real weapon, and Leighton said he thought Bieber was reaching for a gun when he stabbed him in the chest.