Police have charged two Pittsburgh men with breaking into a Knoxville home in 2022, brutally assaulting the man who lived there and videotaping part of the attack before killing him.
Deonte Kidd, 30, of Lincoln-Lemington, and Le’Juane Powell, 31, of Beltzhoover, were charged last week in the death of Victor Sawyer, 52, Pittsburgh police announced Thursday.
Powell was also charged with raping a woman living in the house, according to a criminal complaint.
Both men are in custody. Powell was already in state prison serving a sentence for murder, and police picked up Kidd last week.
Police said the two ransacked the Zara Street home around 3:45 p.m. on Nov. 16, 2022, opening dresser drawers and rummaging through shoeboxes in search of money.
After beating Sawyer and stomping him, the men repeatedly stabbed him, the complaint said. They later shot him in the head.
“Where’s the money at?” one attacker asked Sawyer before stabbing him, according to the police account.
“I got nothing, I got nothing,” Sawyer replied, police said.
“You about to bleed out anyway,” the attacker told Sawyer, according to the complaint.
Sawyer died at the scene.
The female victim was taken to the hospital, where she initially was in stable condition, police said.
Investigators said they found a bloody knife at Sawyer’s house.
Pittsburgh police later searched Powell’s cellphone in an unrelated investigation. On it, they found footage of a bloody Sawyer shortly before he was killed; the floor and surroundings matched the crime scene.
“Cuz, I’d give you my life man,” Sawyer pleaded with the attacker in the cellphone video, according to the complaint. “Never have I ever done anything to hurt you, dog.”
The video ended with Sawyer’s voice breaking as he tried to wipe tears and blood from his face.
Police said they found a Maverick cigarette box with eight 9mm bullets in a hidden compartment inside a coffee table in Powell’s home. The bullets appeared to match cartridges found at the crime scene, police said.
Police said they did not find a gun.
Kidd and Powell were each charged March 27 with homicide, burglary, robbery and other charges. Powell also was charged with rape, aggravated assault and indecent assault.
A judge denied Kidd bail, calling him a danger to the community, court records show.
Prior murder case
At the time the new charges were filed, Powell was serving a 22- to 44-year prison sentence for a third-degree murder in Pittsburgh.
Powell pleaded guilty last year to fatally shooting Kenneth A. Lennex, 34, of Dravosburg eight times in the head in January 2023.
Previously, Powell had pleaded guilty to a 2015 simple assault, making terroristic threats in 2022, and multiple gun counts.
Kidd was a co-defendant in the Lennex case. He pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence, conspiracy and abuse of a corpse. He was sentenced to two years probation.
Kidd had previously pleaded guilty to multiple drug charges, a 2014 burglary and a simple assault in 2020, court records show.
The Allegheny County Public Defender’s Office, which is representing Kidd, declined to comment Thursday on the case.
Powell’s attorney was not listed in court records.