Channel 11 sits down with Fayette County DA after charges filed in nearly 13-year-old cold case

FAYETTE COUNTY, Pa. — Nearly 13 years after Leon Mickens’ killing in Masontown, Fayette County, his family is beginning to feel closure after the District Attorney’s Office filed charges in connection to his death late Wednesday.

>> Man charged in more than decade old Fayette County cold case murder

Mickens’ daughter, Destiny Mickens, sent a statement to Channel 11, saying, in part, “The arrival of this day is truly a blessing, and I can almost picture the sheer joy on my father’s face from above. The absence left by his departure weighs heavily on us each day, and I can’t help but wish that the individual responsible for robbing him of his life understands the enormity of their actions.”

“I think she feels a sense of relief now knowing who’s responsible,” said Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele.

Aubele says Frank Campbell, Jr. is responsible for shooting Mickens in the head, killing him, after an alleged drug deal went bad on August 15, 2011.

Aubele says Campbell has been a suspect since the very beginning.

“This is our guy. This has always been our guy,” Aubele said. “This is the same individual that was developed as a suspect back in 2011. Charges were never filed, through two administrations.”

Aubele doesn’t know why charges were never filed.

But renewed efforts from his office and Masontown Police turned up a key piece of evidence.

“When we first responded back in 2011, we found a cigarette butt and it was in a condition I would call pristine. It still had ash on it. Probably within a few inches of the initial blood spatter from the murder,” Aubele explained.

That cigarette butt came back with a DNA hit back in 2019, but no one noticed until now.

“It just sat there in limbo for the last five years. Nobody seemed to have noticed that it was there,” Aubele said. “We’re extremely satisfied that we were able to bring some closure for the Mickens family.”

According to Aubele, Campbell is already in state prison serving a sentence for an attempted homicide back in 2018.

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