On November 4, 1988, Sergeant John Lee Martin, 39, a seventeen-year veteran of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, was shot while investigating a suspicious car behind the Western Lee County Health Clinic in Ewing, Virginia. Just before 3:00 a.m. the driver opened fire with a .44 caliber handgun, striking Martin multiple times in the upper chest and right hip. He returned fire and, before losing consciousness, gave a description of the shooter and the vehicle, which carried an Illinois Land of Lincoln license plate.

Martin was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville and died three days later. The stolen brown or tan car was found days after the shooting, stripped and burned; bullet holes in the driver’s side door matched Martin’s gunfire. The investigation pointed to David Wayne Mills. Authorities recovered .44 magnum shells at Mills’ home with three missing and later recovered the murder weapon from his grandfather. Mills was arrested on January 5, 1989, charged with Martin’s murder, and a jury convicted him of first-degree murder, attempted burglary, and use of a firearm, resulting in a life sentence plus twelve years.