CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A West Virginia man was sentenced to life in prison on Monday after pleading guilty to killing his family while he was a teenager.
Gavin Blaine Smith, 22, was sentenced after he entered a guilty plea for one charge of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder.
Smith was 16 when prosecutors said he killed his mother, Risa Mae Saunders, 39; stepfather Daniel Long, 37; and stepbrothers Gage Ripley, 12, and Jameson Long 3, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported. All four were found with gunshot wounds to the head at their Elkville home on Dec. 13, 2020.
BREAKING: Gavin Blaine Smith was sentenced to life in prison for one count of first-degree murder plus the equivalent of 40 additional years of imprisonment for three counts of second-degree murder, to be served in a combination of consecutive and concurrent sentences, for the…
— Charleston Gazette-Mail (@wvgazettemail) July 6, 2026
In addition to the life sentence, Smith was also sentenced to 40 years in prison for each count of second-degree murder, WSAZ reported. Two of the 40-year sentences will be served concurrently, according to WOWK.
Smith was tried as an adult during his 2022 trial. A West Virginia state law allows persons who were convicted of murder and were minors when the crime was committed to be eligible for parole after 15 years of incarceration, the Gazette-Mail reported.
Prosecutors argued that Smith was angered because his parents forbade him to see his then-girlfriend, 17-year-old Rebecca Walker, according to the newspaper.
Walker was later convicted on four counts of being an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder.
In June 2025, Smith’s convictions were overturned and a new trial was ordered when the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, in a 4-1 vote, ruled that the trial judge in Smith’s original trial had erred in issuing final instructions to the jury, the Gazette-Mail reported.
Before the scheduled June 21 date for the new trial, Smith signed a plea deal, according to the newspaper.
“I don’t think we could have gotten a better outcome,” Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney Debra Rusnak said, according to WSAZ. “I feel us working hard and putting in those hours led to a plea that is very favorable for the state and very favorable for the victims.
“This is exactly what we had hoped for, and, again, I feel relief knowing that justice is served and this family can have some closure.”
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