Logan Dewayne LepardA Sequatchie County, Tennessee, man charged in the fatal shooting of a young father in September will face a grand jury on a homicide charge.
Officials said the criminal homicide charge against Paul D. Coffman Jr., 21, was sent to the Sequatchie County grand jury on Dec. 12. He's accused in the slaying of Logan Dewayne Lepard, also 21, whose body was found Sept. 8 lying partially in a ditch and in the road in the 5300 block of Henson Gap Road, east of Dunlap.
Coffman is represented by the 12th Judicial District Public Defender's Office.
"The grand jury reports the last week of January and we're waiting to see what the results will be," Public Defender Jeff Harmon said Thursday. He couldn't discuss the case further.
Twelfth Judicial District Assistant District Attorney Steve Strain said Thursday that the state's witness testifying before the grand jury last week was Sequatchie County Sheriff's Office detective Jody Lockhart.
Lockhart testified that Coffman was still at the home when officers arrived. Lepard had already been transported to the hospital when the detective got to the scene. Strain said Lockhart testified that Coffman helped officers find the gun he is said to have used, a 9-mm. semi-automatic handgun.
According to preliminary hearing testimony, Lepard and an acquaintance went to the back door of Coffman's house and Coffman told them, "I don't do business at the back door, go around front," Strain said. Lepard and the other person went around to the front side of the house and had walked out to Henson Gap Road when Coffman came out.
Coffman went on onto the front porch of his home and "started shooting," Strain said of the preliminary hearing testimony. Lepard was at least 150 feet away at the road in front of the home.
Coffman fired several times, striking Lepard once in the chest. Strain said the bullet passed all the way through the victim's body, so it was never recovered, although "several shell casings" were recovered by investigators at the scene.
Strain said the detective testified that the two 21-year-olds had been "having a beef" on Facebook but "the nature of the 'beef' was never clarified in testimony."
Meanwhile, Coffman remains at the Sequatchie County Justice Center on $75,000 bond.
According to his obituary, Lepard left behind a son, wife, parents and sister. In the online condolences on Reed Family Funeral Home's website, the victim's former sixth-grade language arts teacher at Rossville Middle School described him as "sweet, charming and very funny," and noted that when he moved away at the end of that school year, "we all cried."
The teacher wrote "he had a lot to offer this world and I'm sad to know that he left it too soon."
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.