LANCASTER, PA. — A Quarryville-area man was formally sentenced to death Friday morning in Lancaster County Court for killing an East Drumore Township woman and her daughter during a 2015 break-in.
Lancaster County President Judge Dennis Reinaker sentenced 40-year-old Leeton Thomas to death after a jury convicted Thomas on Tuesday of two counts of first-degree murder for fatally stabbing Lisa Scheetz and her 16-year-old daughter – who would have celebrated her 19th birthday on Friday.
While ordering sentence, Reinaker said that should Pennsylvania lift a moratorium on executions, Thomas “should go to the very top of the list.”
Thomas and his attorneys declined to comment during the 30-minute hearing.
First Assistant District Attorney Christopher P. Larsen, who won the conviction, showed Reinaker three photographs of Lisa and her daughter smiling and, in one, embracing each other.
Several of the victims’ relatives – including Lisa’s two other daughters, one of whom was nearly killed by Thomas in the attack – watched from the courtroom gallery.
Some of them spoke of Lisa and her deceased daughter’s joyful and caring approach to life. They scolded Thomas for trying to avoid pending sex-abuse charges by killing witnesses in the case.
“He has no remorse,” one of Lisa’s surviving daughters said. “It doesn’t matter to him that I’m not able to call my mom. That my (surviving) sister has to live everyday of her life with reminders on her body of that night.”
Thomas cut a window screen of the Scheetzes’ Spring Valley Road home, entered, and attacked Lisa and two of her daughters, viciously stabbing them.
The 15-year-old daughter survived and testified at trial, saying Thomas, who she knew as “Pie,” was the intruder.
Thomas did not look at any of the relatives who spoke Friday in court.
Kim Scheetz, Lisa’s husband, called Thomas an “evil man.”
“The horror, terror and fear (the victims) had to endure that night is unimaginable,” he said.
Thomas was convicted Tuesday afternoon of two counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder, and burglary.
The jury reached a death sentence verdict Wednesday night.
State police Trooper Todd McCurdy filed charges.
SOURCE: Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office
