.jpg)
Editor's note: This article has been edited to indicate that Johnson had had a relationship with Stormie Markland, the victim, not her sister Brezzy as originially reported.
A Lexington man will serve 40 years in prison for first-degree murder.
Leland David Johnson, 44, was sentenced Monday afternoon to 100 years, with 60 years of that sentence suspended, for the murder of Stormie Markland last March. The sentence was presented to the court as a lastminute agreement between Johnson’s attorneys and Rockbridge County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jared Moon.
Moon consulted with Markland’s family, who agreed that the sentence was justice for the crime. Judge Christopher Russell also agreed, saying that the proposed sentence “meets the ends of justice.”
“We’re very pleased with the result,” Moon told The News-Gazette after the hearing. “The agreement took the element of surprise out of it. The judge had all the options before him.”
A pre-sentence report was prepared for Johnson, which recommended a minimum sentence of 12 years and a maximum sentence of 39 years.
Prior to the sentencing, Markland’s sister, Brezzy Markland, read a prepared statement from her family to the court about the impact her sister’s death had had on their family. Johnson had been in a relationship with Stormie Markland and they were the parents of a young son.
“Not a day goes by that she is not missed by all of us,” she said. “She has not been there to see her son get straight As and prepare to start the third grade. She was not there to see him play baseball this season and watch him make new friends. All of her son’s future accomplishments will be marked by her absence.”
Markland added that her nephew has been attending counseling since his mother’s death, “to help him with his depression and anger issues.”
“One day, when he is old enough to ask the right questions, we will have to explain to him how his mother died and how his father committed the crime,” she said. “That will be a hard day for all of us.”
Markland was murdered in March of 2023, her body found on Hopper’s Creek Road on the afternoon of March 22. An autopsy determined that she had been killed by two gunshot wounds.
She had been reported missing by her family two days earlier after she had left the house with Johnson and not returned. Johnson was taken into custody on the 22nd and charged with second- degree murder. Following a preliminary hearing in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, Johnson was indicted in January on charges of second-degree murder, first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony by a Rockbridge County Grand Jury. In March, he entered a guilty plea to the firstdegree murder charge, with the other charges being dismissed.
As he did after the hearing in March, Moon thanked the citizens of Rockbridge County who came forward and provided evidence and information to law enforcement during the investigation.
“If not for them, we wouldn’t have this result today,” he said.
