Federal prosecutors are watching to see what Anderson County Sheriff's Office investigators learn about the fatal Friday shooing of Walter Laranzo Lee, who recently testified in a federal drug trial.
Anderson County Sheriff's Office investigators have not established a definite link between the shooting in Anderson and members of a five-state drug conspiracy.
"We're still gathering information and talking to witnesses," Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper said Monday morning.
Lee was shot several times Friday afternoon at his auto-detailing business on Lance Drive just outside Anderson city limits.
He was found lying on his left side in the driveway of the shop with several gunshot wounds and people surrounding him, according to a deputy's incident report. Lee, 40, later died at AnMed Health Medical Center.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Moorman, who helped prosecute the drug case, said federal officials do not know whether the killing was related to the drug investigation. He said the Sheriff's Office is leading that investigation.
"Bottom line is at this point, there is not a lot we can say," Moorman said. "We don't know why Mr. Lee was murdered."
Investigators have not released descriptions of any vehicles that may have been involved in the shooting nor any information on possible suspects.
Lee's defense attorney, Frank Eppes of Greenville, told the Independent Mail on Friday night that Lee was trying to live a good life.
Family members, mourning Lee at an Anderson home, declined to talk.
Lee was one of 19 people who were accused of having some part in a long and far-reaching drug ring that operated out of Anderson and touched at least five states. All pleaded guilty except for two, Eric Scott and Antonio Rodesquiz Crawley, who were found guilty after a trial.
The drug ring used smuggling compartments to move drugs from Atlanta into Anderson and move money back, according to court records and an interview earlier this month with Andy Moorman, a federal prosecutor involved in the case. Authorities seized at least $1.5 million and 220 pounds of cocaine in the last few years.
The investigation lasted at least several years and involved a dozen local and federal agencies spanning five states, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.
Two Anderson men, Scott and Crawley, were convicted Nov. 9 after a nine-day federal drug trial. Because of previous federal drug convictions, they will get mandatory life sentences, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office. Others in the case are awaiting sentencing.
Moorman said what happens next depends on what Sheriff's Office investigators find out about the shooting and whether it was connected to the drug case.
"Bottom line is we don't know enough right now, and it's an ongoing investigation," he said.
Lee was wearing an electronic monitor until October, when his attorney and federal prosecutors agreed to remove the monitoring because it had started to affect Lee's business by restricting him from going to used car sales and he had only minimal problems while on the monitor, according to court records.
His auto-detailing shop is on Lewis Street and is separate from another auto-detailing shop, belonging to Scott and located on Booker Street. The Booker Street shop and a surveillance camera on a pole outside of it played a critical role in the federal drug case, prosecutors said in court documents.
Lee entered a guilty plea in March, about a year after he was indicted, and he admitted to conspiring with many others to distribute 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of cocaine.
His killing is the 18th homicide of the year assigned to the Anderson County Sheriff's Office, two of those homicides have been found to be justified, said Lt. Sheila Cole of the Sheriff's Office.
Independent Mail reporter Kirk Brown contributed to this story.
Follow Mike Ellis and Kirk Brown on Twitter @MikeEllis_AIM and @KirkBrown_AIM
Read or Share this story: http://www.independentmail.com/story/news/local/south-carolina/2016/11/21/link-between-anderson-shooting-death-drug-trial-investigated/94214058/
