MEIGS COUNTY, OH (WOWK) – A man charged with murder has been sentenced in Meigs County Court.

According to Meigs County Prosecuting Attorney James Stanley, Wayne O. Leib, Jr., 41, of Racine was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a charge of aggravated murder, an unclassified felony.

Stanley says Leib appeared in the Meigs County Court of Common Pleas where he pleaded guilty to the aggravated murder charge. Leib initially pleaded “not guilty by reason of insanity” in November 2022.

Leib is accused in the Sept. 30, 2022 death of Dwayne Qualls who was found shot and killed in his Pomeroy, Ohio, home. Leib was arrested that night and charged on Oct. 3, 2022.

Leib is also accused in another murder that happened earlier that same evening in Mason, West Virginia, just 10 minutes away from the scene in Pomeroy. During the investigation, Mason Police Chief Colton McKinney said Jason Pierce, 34, of Racine, was found with multiple gunshots and stab wounds in a home on Front Street in Mason.

Authorities say Leib faces a first-degree murder charge in the Mason investigation.

Stanley says he argued for Leib to receive the maximum sentence due to the circumstances of the case.