Lionel Lamont Vincent serving 75 years to life for two VBT murders

On Oct. 31, 2025, a Wayne County Circuit Court jury found Lionel Lamont Vincent, 52, guilty of one count of first-degree, premeditated murder and not guilty of a second count of first-degree murder. Instead, he was found guilty of a count of second-degree murder.
This was following the murders of a mother and her 14-year-old daughter in Van Buren Township on July 25, 2021.
The jury trial lasted two weeks.
On Dec. 12, 2025 he was sentenced to 75 years to life in a Michigan prison and a fee of $266.
Vincent currently is a medium-security prisoner at Kinross Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula near Sault Ste. Marie. Kinross houses up to 1,600 inmates.
Vincent originally had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He was on trial for stabbing to death a mother and teenage daughter.
At trial it was revealed there were more than 15 stab wounds on each victim.
Yachanda Snipes, 45, who had dated Vincent, and her daughter Daraca Leatherberry were found dead inside their apartment in the 46000 block of Lake Villa Drive within the Belleville Pointe apartment complex.
After the jury verdict, sentencing was set for Nov. 24 and then reset for Dec. 11.
Vincent was brought from Lakeland Correctional Facility in Ionia by the Michigan Department of Corrections for his preliminary exam at 34th District Court in June of 2022. He was being held on pending charges of violation of probation on a previous charge.
Now retired Van Buren Township Police Detective Mike Long said at the time that Vincent was the suspect from the beginning and the victim was an Uber driver at the time they met.
Det. Long said the state held Vincent for possible parole violation because of the VBT police murder investigation. He was wearing his GPS ankle monitor, required for his parole, at the time of the killings, police said.
According to Michigan Department of Corrections records, Vincent was paroled Sept. 22, 2020 after serving 27 years in prison for an Aug. 25, 1994 kidnapping and rape, using a weapon to commit a felony and various other weapons charges, in Oakland County. He also was convicted of those charges by a jury.
Those violations of parole in the Van Buren Township murders led to him go back to prison for 20 to 40 more years for the 1994 offenses and two years more on the weapons charges.