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published: Friday, November 28, 2008
Love triangle ends in shooting
MILLARD K. IVES
Staff Writer
A love triangle was behind a botched murder attempt by an estranged wife and her boyfriend to get rid of the husband, according to a probable cause affidavit filed Friday evening in the Lake County courthouse.
But the plot went awry when the boyfriend was shot and went into a coma, before being jailed on attempted murder charges.
The probable cause affidavit adds that Gail Theresa Smith, 38, and her boyfriend, Randall Devon Hepburn, 29, frequented a gun range, leading up to the Sept. 21 shooting of her husband, Winston Heron.
Smith was charged with principal to murder as well as providing false information to a law enforcement officer and accessory after the fact -- allegedly for lying about talking to Hepburn on the phone during the shooting, Leesburg police said.
Smith has been in Lake County jail in lieu of $250,000 since October and Hepburn has been in jail since earlier this month, with no bail. But the State Attorney's Office only released the details behind the motive Friday evening, after filing the probable cause affidavit.
Hepburn also was charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and use of a firearm by a felon.
According to an arrest affidavit, Heron returned home in his truck from his nearby Carver Heights Grocery Store in Leesburg about 2 a.m. on Sept. 21, carrying a money bag and a .357 revolver for protection.
He told Leesburg police that as he drove up, he heard a gunshot and saw a silhouette of a man nearby, but didn't recognize him. They exchanged gunfire and the assailant was hit. He fled the scene -- leaving a trail of blood and other evidence behind.
After calling 911, Heron ironically called his wife, Smith, to tell her what happened.
Assistant State Attorney Jonathon Olson said at the time, Heron didn't think his wife was involved.
"He was separated from her but thought they were trying to work things out," Olson said.
Smith initially told investigators she was not involved in a relationship with Hepburn, but officials later determined they had the same address, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Leesburg police detective Nick Romanelli added that investigators discovered through phone records that when Heron called Smith, she was on the line with Hepburn, before switching over to answer Heron's call.
There were several calls made between her phone and that of Hepburn at about the time of the shooting, according to the affidavit.
Shortly afterward, Hepburn turned up at Waterman Hospital with a gunshot to the face, collapsing in the emergency room.
Romanelli said police had suspected Hepburn was the gunman they were looking for, because he was the only gunshot victim they encountered that morning. But Hepburn was in and out of a coma, so investigators had to wait for DNA testing results.
But Hepburn eventually helped police to identify him as the suspect. In late October, Romanelli received a phone call from someone claiming he was Hepburn's attorney, and that his client wanted to sue Heron for the shooting -- and they wanted to talk.
"This was a chance to place him at the scene," Romanelli said.
Hepburn told investigators that Heron had invited him to his home. And, that as he sat there waiting for him, Heron shot at him.
But Romanelli said evidence suggested otherwise and Hepburn was charged.
"His story just didn't add up," Romanelli said.
