On the evening of April 9, 2017, in the small community of Mammoth in Kanawha County, West Virginia, the life of Jason Ryan 'JRoc' Johnson, a 36-year-old male, was brought to a sudden and violent end. He sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the face, an event that would trigger a complex investigation by the West Virginia State Police. The shooting unfolded under circumstances that were immediately shrouded in conflict and uncertainty, with a claim of self-defense emerging as a central point of contention for investigators to unravel.
The inquiry into Johnson's death quickly led to arrests, though not for his murder directly. A key figure in the investigation, George Leake, was taken into custody on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. State Police located a 9 mm pistol connected to Leake in the nearby town of Montgomery.
During questioning, Leake admitted to hiding the weapon at his mother's house, a confession that directly linked him to the gun involved in the shooting incident. His legal troubles were compounded by an outstanding warrant for escaping from community corrections in Fayette County from October 2015, which resulted in him being held without bond on that separate charge.
Adding another layer to the case, a witness to the shooting, Tamara Lanham, was also arrested. Authorities charged her with lying to a trooper during the course of the investigation. Lanham had initially told law enforcement that the gun had discharged accidentally during a fight. However, this statement was inconsistent with other evidence and statements gathered by the police, leading to her arrest. As the legal process began for both Leake and Lanham, the primary investigation into Jason Johnson's death continued, with prosecutors carefully examining the shooter's self-defense claim to determine its validity and whether further charges were warranted in the case.
