Santa Maria Sun / News

Leeds will spend the rest of his life in prison for scrap yard killings

BY AMY ASMAN

It’s done: Lee Leeds, the man who shot and killed four people at a Santa Maria salvage yard in 2008, has been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison, the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office announced on July 19. FILE PHOTO

On July 19, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley announced that “mass murderer Lee Leeds was sentenced to a term of 100 years to life [in prison]” for shooting and killing four people, including his father, at a Santa Maria salvage yard in 2008.

“That term will then be followed by a term of life without the possibility of parole on each of the four counts of first degree murder,” Dudley said in a prepared statement.

Leeds opened fire at Black Road Auto in Santa Maria on March 18, 2008, killing his father Richard Leeds, who owned the business, Dave Dubois, Terry Majan, and Ricardo Leal.

Leeds, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, received psychiatric care at Patton State Hospital while in custody. However, a jury earlier this year found him legally sane at the time of the killings.

“No sentence could ever ameliorate the horrendous, senseless death of these four innocent victims,” Dudley added in the statement. “I hope this extraordinary sentence can however be the beginning of a healing process for all those who have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of this tragic crime.”