A Maryland woman was found guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the strangling death of her younger brother that prosecutors said she helped carry out as part of a plot with her boyfriend and her twin sister.
A jury convicted 25-year-old Leaundra Matthews, of Accokeek, on charges related to the 2017 strangling death of 17-year-old Christian Matthews.
Leaundra Matthews is scheduled to be sentenced in January 2024. She faces up to 30 years in prison.
“This defendant was integral to the plot to kill Christian Matthews and served as the driver, both to and from, the scene of the murder,” said State’s Attorney John McCarthy in a news release.
Prosecutors said her boyfriend, 26-year-old Tysean Lipford was the one who strangled Christian Matthews while he was sleeping inside the family’s Silver Spring home in the early morning hours of March 21, 2017. Lipford was convicted of second-degree murder in January 2019 and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
In addition, her twin sister, Lemae Matthews, pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder in October 2021 and will be sentenced next year.
Another man, Daniel Howard, who police say was involved in the killing, is set to go on trial in April 2024.
While Lipford was arrested just days after the crime, the twin sisters were not charged until September 2021. According to authorities, Leaundra Matthews confessed her involvement to her mother and aunt in 2019, who ultimately reported her to police.
According to charging documents, Lipford told police he and Leaundra Matthews conspired to kill her brother, saying she told him Christian Matthews “had to go” after alleging that he threatened Leaundra and Leaundra’s daughter.
Lemae Matthews, the twin sister, wrote in a statement to the court: “Christian didn’t like the fact that Tysean was the father of Leandra’s baby, and said that he wanted to fight Tysean.”
According to text messages obtained from Lipford’s iPod, he told Leaundra Matthews to let him know when her brother was home and the couple coordinated the murder.
According to the documents, Leaundra Matthews picked Lipford and another co-conspirator, 26-year-old Daniel Howard, up from a witness’s house so they could commit the murder and then drove them back afterward.
Prosecutors said that she also surveilled her neighborhood in preparation for the murder and texted Lipford, threatening to nix the plan if he and Howard did not follow her instructions.
Lemae Matthews told the court that she watched her twin sister’s daughter while she transported the two men. She said she spoke on the phone with Leaundra while she was gone, and confirmed for her that Christian was asleep.
“I knew that they wanted to kill Christian but I hoped that they would just beat Christian up instead,” Lemae Matthews’ statement read, adding that she didn’t come forward about the crime because she was scared that Howard, called “Ghost,” would kill her too.
According to prosecutors, text messages reveal Leaundra Matthews instructed Lipford on what time to arrive and how to enter the house, making sure a back door was unlocked and leaving disposable gloves.
After Christian Matthews was killed, Lemae Matthews said she wanted to call 911 and that she and her twin sister argued over whether she should. Lemae said she ultimately called 911, although her sister coached her on what to tell police, and she admitted to lying to the authorities.
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