Cousin Turned Killer: Life Sentence for Virginia Double Murder

When someone tells you that betrayal cuts deepest from those closest to you, Edward Jackson Bland’s case proves it in the most tragic way imaginable. The Virginia man was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole for murdering his pregnant cousin Leann Harris and her best friend Asia Payne in April 2024—a crime that shattered not just a family, but the bonds of trust that should exist between relatives.

Harris was 34 years old and four months pregnant when Bland shot her in the head. Payne was only 22. What makes this even more painful is that Bland wasn’t some stranger or random act of violence—he was Harris’s cousin, and according to her father James Caison, they were“the best of friends.”The relationship that should have been a source of safety became the avenue for tragedy.

The investigation began when police responded to a reported carjacking and discovered Bland’s connection to the vehicle. When the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office found him, Bland confessed to killing two people. Officers went to where he’d been before the carjacking and found both Harris and Payne with fatal gunshot wounds to the head. In December, a Prince William County jury found him guilty of aggravated murder of a pregnant victim to terminate her pregnancy, aggravated murder of killing more than one person, second-degree murder, carjacking, and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

During sentencing last week, the impact of Bland’s actions became unmistakably clear. Harris’s mother took the stand and said,“I pray he never sees the light of day and may God have mercy on his soul.”Payne’s mother offered a starkly different response, telling Bland directly:“I forgive you for killing my baby.”When asked if he had anything to say, Bland simply replied,“I’m good.”

Two lives taken. Two families forever altered. One man will spend the rest of his days behind bars. Justice, in this case, comes in the form of finality—but it’s a cold comfort to those left to grieve.