ST. LOUIS — An East St. Louis man will spend the rest of his life in prison Tuesday after a jury convicted him of first-degree murder in a 2019 shooting death.
Leron Harris, 28, was sentenced to life in prison without an opportunity for parole for first-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Mark Schlemmer. Harris was also sentenced to an additional 15 years in prison for one count of armed criminal action.
A jury convicted Harris in January. It was the second trial of the case after a jury in April of 2022 could not come to a unanimous decision, resulting in a mistrial.
According to a probable cause statement from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, Schlemmer and two witnesses had just left a Halloween party on Washington Avenue in the early hours of Nov. 1, 2019, and got into a car parked along the street.
Schlemmer got into the passenger seat and the first witness, who police said had a prior relationship with Harris, got into the driver's seat.
Police said Harris pulled up in a car wearing a mask and tried to block the witness' car in, then pointed a gun at the driver and fired. The bullet missed the driver and struck Schlemmer in the head.
The witness drove away, police said, before Harris reversed his car and accelerated to chase after them. Harris lost control and crashed into several cars.
Schlemmer was taken to the hospital but later died.
Police said the second witness owned the car that Harris used and was allowing him to drive it. That witness told police that Harris texted her after the shooting and told her to throw away her phone and report her car as stolen.
The first witness identified the mask Harris was wearing from a photo on his Instagram, police said. Police said the same mask was found when Harris was arrested in Marietta, Georgia.
