Saturday, November 28, 2015

Accused Cop Killer Who Successfully Fended Off Murder Charges Gets Convicted Years Later For Threatening To Kill His Criminal Defense Attorney When Latter Foreclosed On His Home Over $200K+ In Unpaid Legal Fees

In Knoxville, Tennessee, the Cleveland Daily Banner reports:
  • A Roane County man has been convicted on charges of threatening to kill a Cleveland attorney.

    Leon Houston was found guilty by a jury [] in the U.S. District Court in Knoxville on the charge of making a threat via interstate commerce.

    Houston had been defended by attorney James Logan during two trials on state murder charges in the killings of Roane County Deputy Bill Jones and former law enforcement officer Mike Brown.

    A mistrial was declared in the case in 2008; however, a jury acquitted Houston during a second trial in 2009.

    Logan eventually foreclosed on Houston’s property, which had been held as security of payment of services, after the attorney sought payment for his services.

    The attorney had previously testified his cost for representing Houston was more than $200,000.

    Houston was in the Blount County Jail when, as stated in his charge, he called his girlfriend and repeated said either he or any of “his people” would kill Logan.

    Houston had said the remarks in the conversation were only made in jest.

    The maximum sentence for the charge is five years, but Houston will get credit for the three years he has already been in custody when he is sentenced later next month.

    Last year Logan purchased three of the available tracts of land for $150,000 at a foreclosure sale in 2011.

    He later donated two of those tracts, which totaled 75 acres and were valued at $296,000, to the Roane County Habitat for Humanity.