State’s Attorney Jaymi Sterling announced today that Lee L. Richardson, 24, of Capitol Heights, Maryland, has been sentenced to LIFE in prison for the first-degree murder of a 19-year-old victim.
In January 2025, the victim’s family reported their loved one as missing. The family communicated with the young man on a daily basis until January 21, 2025, when all interactions abruptly stopped.
After conducting a thorough and extensive investigation, the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office decided that Lee Richardson, a person known to the victim, murdered him by shooting him in the head. Investigators discovered that Richardson tried to conceal the crime by cleaning up the scene inside the victim’s home in Hollywood, Maryland.
“After murdering his friend in a senseless betrayal, the Defendant callously disposed of the victim’s body,” said State’s Attorney Jaymi Sterling. “The Defendant murdered someone who trusted him, lied to the victim’s family about his involvement or knowledge, and left them to discover the truth on their own when they found their son’s body in a trash can. A life sentence is the only just outcome for the devastating harm the Defendant caused to this innocent family.”
The lead investigator was Detective Benjamin Raley from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office.
Senior Assistant State’s Attorneys Donna Pettersen and Alena Mosier prosecuted the case on behalf of St. Mary’s County residents.
The Honorable Joseph Stanalonis presided over the proceedings.
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