Ex-restaurant owner back from federal prison, still under house arrest in murder case

The onetime owner of a chain of Mexican restaurants who is accused of the Valentine’s Day shooting death of his wife’s lover is back in Columbia after serving a six-month federal sentence for hiring illegal immigrants.

Greg Leon returned Dec. 22 from a minimum-security federal prison in Virginia and is back under house arrest with ankle monitoring on the 2016 murder charge, his attorney, Eric Bland said Friday.

Leon is working with the San Jose restaurants, of which he owned seven at one time, Bland said. Under the terms of his Lexington County bond, Leon can have no contact with his wife, who once asked the judge to let him return home because she believed he wasn’t a threat to her.

Leon was charged with the shooting death of Arturo Bravo Santos, 28, who Leon described on his 911 call as the lover of Leon’s wife of 27 years, Maria. Santos was an undocumented immigrant, the county coroner has said.

“I shot my wife’s lover,” he is heard saying to a dispatcher, according to the warrants. Leon surrendered to Lexington town police later that night.

The shooting happened in a deserted parking lot near the town of Lexington, where Leon confronted them together in the back seat of a pickup truck. The shooting was captured on a surveillance camera at the parking lot, a warrant issued at the time stated.

At the time, Leon was serving six months’ federal probation after pleading guilty in November 2015 to misdemeanor charges of hiring illegal immigrants to work at his restaurants.

That crime constituted a violation of the federal bond, so Leon had to serve six months, his lawyer said.

Leon also played a major role in providing evidence that led to the guilty plea of longtime Lexington County Sheriff James Metts. The restaurant owner paid Metts bribes to get illegal Mexican aliens out of the Lexington County jail so they could return to work, according to court records and prosecutors.

Metts served about a year after pleading in April 2015. He also was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and be under supervised release for two years after he was freed from prison. Metts also told the sentencing judge he would perform community service with Christ Central Ministries.

This story was originally published January 6, 2017 at 8:31 PM with the headline "Ex-restaurant owner back from federal prison, still under house arrest in murder case."