Lee Covington

Friends and family give victim impact statements as defendant stares intently

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Yevin Rushing, 23, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday, Aug. 14, after pleading guilty to the July 7, 2017 murder of Lee Covington. In addition, Judge Ernest White sentenced Rushing to 30 years for aggravated kidnapping and 30 years for aggravated robbery.

The sentences are concurrent.

The judge explained that the charges were “aggravated” kidnapping and robbery because the defendant used “a deadly weapon and a knife” in committing the crimes. When he asked the defense attorneys if there was any reason the defendant shouldn’t be held, and they said no, the judge declared, “The sentence begins today.”

Covington was personal assistant to the Rev. Neil Cazares-Thomas, pastor of Cathedral of Hope, and to previous pastor the Rev. Jo Hudson and interim pastor the Rev. Jim Mitulski.

Yevin Rushing

Had the case gone to trial, Rushing would have been charged with capital murder and could have been given the death penalty. His plea deal with prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. He pleaded guilty to the murder, kidnapping and robbery on July 24.
Judge White on Tuesday also sentenced Rushing on a charge unrelated to Covington’s death.

Covington’s neighbors saw Rushing leave Covington’s apartment and lock the door behind him on July 7, 2017. A few hours later, witnesses saw Rushing return in a moving truck, planning to empty Covington’s apartment.

But in the meantime, Covington’s partner, Mack McLeod had returned to the apartment and found Covington dead. He had been bound and beaten and had died of suffocation.

McLeod had called police, who were already at the apartment when Rushing returned with the moving truck, so Rushing continued driving. Police arrested him several days later.

White handed down Rushing’s sentences on Tuesday, before a courtroom packed with Covington’s family and friends. Several members of Rushing’s family sat in the back, but one was overcome with emotion and ran out of the courtroom when White delivered the sentence.

After Rushing was sentenced, five of Covington’s friends and family members gave victim impact statements. Rushing was shackled throughout the proceedings, and during the impact statements, he sat quietly, staring intently as each person spoke.

The Rev. Erin Wyma of Cathedral of Hope was in the courtroom, and she described Rushing as having “dead eyes” as he stared at Covington’s family and friends

The first to speak were Harold and Kathleen Copenhaver, Covington’s sister and brother-in-law. Kathleen Copenhaver described how her parents had gotten frail since the murder, and she spoke about trying to find a way to forgive Rushing and move on with her life. But, she said, she still has difficulty understanding the crime.

“I will always struggle with the why,” she said.

McLeod talked about losing his partner and how, at that moment when he found Covington’s body, everything in his life changed. He said the plans they were making for a vacation and for retirement all came crashing down. Everything about his life suddenly stopped, he said.

“Through Lee, I became more adventurous,” McLeod said, but added that since Covington’s death, he has again become more withdrawn.

Addressing Rushing, McLeod said, “July 17, 2017 changed everything for me.” Then he asked the court to never consider parole for Rushing.
Janet Maddox, who said she and Covington had been friends for more than 37 years, said that when she heard of his murder, she couldn’t believe it was true. “It made no sense,” she said, adding that the more she learned about Rushing, the less sense Covington’s murder made.

“Three months to the day after your son was born,” Maddox admonished Rushing. “Why? At 22 years old, you chose to ruin your life?” Returning his stare, she added, “You took away something that can never be replaced.”

Rushing’s girlfriend and son were in the courtroom July 24 when he pleaded guilty, but weren’t there this week when he was sentenced.
Cazares-Thomas was concise as he addressed Rushing on Tuesday. He wanted to make sure no doubt was left about the intent when Rushing entered Covington’s apartment.

“His life was less important than your greed,” he said. “You tied him up, beat him and suffocated him.”

Cazares-Thomas, who was called to the apartment before the medical examiner removed Covington’s body that day, stressed that Covington’s death wasn’t something that happened accidentally when Rushing was trying to rob Covington, as had been suggested. It was, the minister said, “cold, brutal murder,” going on to describe to Rushing the vivid details of Covington’s body that day.

Once Cazares-Thomas stepped down from the stand, Rushing was removed from the courtroom to begin his sentence.

After the penalty phase hearing concluded, friends and family gathered outside the courtroom. The prosecutor came out and said it was good to see so many friends were interested. He said in too many cases, no one shows up.

“That’s how we do it in the gay community in Dallas,” someone told him.

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MEMORIAL
Cathedral of Hope recently finished building a new entrance to the church.
The original entrance was via Nash Street, a residential street off of Inwood Road. Soon after the church was completed in the 1990s, the houses along the street were torn down and Nash Street was left to crumble. Two other entrances to the church’s parking lot were through the Ford dealership on Inwood Road and through a doggie day care parking lot on Cedar Springs Road.

A new entrance from Cedar Springs Road recently opened, marked by a stone monument with the church’s name on it.

The new street has been named Lee Covington Way.