In the summer of 2015, a welfare check on a quiet street in Randallstown, Maryland, led to the discovery of a chilling crime. On the evening of July 1st, police were dispatched to the 4300 block of Travancore Road after a concerned individual reported not hearing from Lonnie Bernard Paye Jr. Inside the home, officers found the 51-year-old Black/African American man deceased on the floor of his garage, the victim of at least one gunshot wound.
There were no signs of forced entry, but the scene told a story of a life abruptly and violently ended.
The investigation into the death of the successful construction business owner quickly zeroed in on a person from his past. Detectives learned that Lonnie was embroiled in a contentious custody dispute with his ex-girlfriend, Deidra Veella Griffin, who was 40 years old at the time and living in Michigan with their young son. The couple had a child together, but their relationship had soured, and they were navigating the complexities of co-parenting from different states. A court had recently granted Lonnie visitation rights, a development that would prove to be a pivotal point in the case.
As investigators delved deeper, a sinister plot began to emerge. Evidence suggested that Deidra Griffin had traveled over 500 miles from her home in Bay City, Michigan, to Randallstown on June 19, 2015. On that day, she allegedly entered Lonnie's home and shot him in his garage. Security camera footage from Lonnie's residence captured a woman matching Griffin's build entering the property. Further investigation uncovered that Griffin had been practicing with a 9mm handgun at a shooting range in the days leading up to the murder.
On July 20, 2015, Deidra Griffin was arrested at her home in Michigan. A search of her residence uncovered a 9mm semi-automatic handgun, empty boxes of ammunition, and paper targets from a shooting range. She was charged with first-degree murder and handgun violations and subsequently extradited back to Maryland to face trial. At the conclusion of a four-day trial in June 2016, a jury found Deidra Veella Griffin guilty of the first-degree murder of Lonnie Bernard Paye Jr. For her crime, she was sentenced to life in prison.
