Teen whose dad was shot to death gets scholarship from unlikely source

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Missouri Southern State University.

Colby Leeper still remembers exactly when his mother came to school to tell him his father had been shot to death.

It was 49 days before his 11th birthday in November 2008. He was in fifth grade, but even then he realized his life had changed forever.

His father came to all of his sporting events, Colby Leeper said, and he had to come to terms with the fact that he would never hear or see him again.

“That was probably the hardest thing about it,” he said.

From that tragedy, though, has come hope and kindness from an unlikely source.

Compassion, a group founded by death row inmates, awarded Colby Leeper a $1,500 college scholarship. The scholarships, for family members of murder victims, are financed by contributions from death row inmates, including proceeds from the sale of art.

A fatal quarrel

Edward “Brian” Leeper Jr., 33, was in a second-story hotel room at the Stratford House Inn on West Kellogg when he came out onto the balcony and then walked down to the parking lot at about 11:30 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2008, Wichita police reported at the time.

A witness reported hearing five or six shots, and Brian Leeper was found on the ground with a gunshot wound to the chest.

“I’ll never forget his sister called me the next morning and she was crying and said she had bad news,” Hillary Brown Schrag, Colby Leeper’s mother, said in an e-mail response to questions.

“I knew before she could finish the sentence that he was gone. I remember every word she said.”

An investigation revealed Brian Leeper had been killed following a quarrel. Joshuwa Matchett, now 34, was convicted in Sedgwick County District Court of voluntary manslaughter. He is incarcerated at the state penitentiary in Lansing and isn’t eligible for release before June 28, 2026.

‘Missed him every day’

It has been nearly eight years since his father’s death, enough time for Colby Leeper to grow up, graduate from Campus High School and head off to Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, Mo.

“His dad can’t help” his son on his journey, Schrag said. “But financially, it’s kind of like he’s helping — almost.”

When Colby Leeper applied for the scholarship, he submitted an essay as part of his application. He was selected by death row inmates to receive the scholarship.

Compassion was formed in 2001 in Ohio and has awarded more than $50,000 in scholarships.

“I could not believe I would never see him again,” Colby Leeper wrote in the essay about his father. “I have missed him every day of my life since then.”

In his essay, he wrote that he knows what it’s like to go through hard times.

“I understand what it feels like to be lonely, to yearn for something you cannot have, to be lost and sad. I also know what it is like to overcome,” Colby Leeper wrote.

He wrote that he has thought about others who were affected by the crime that took his father from him.

“The man who murdered my dad had his own children. They are also victims of this crime. I know it is not their fault. I wish I could change what happened. I could have my dad and they could have theirs. Violence is senseless. I wish we could all let go of the hate and learn to feel compassion for one another. I learned this lesson the hard way, but it is one I will never forget.”

Fred Moor, the outside coordinator for Compassion, said Colby Leeper is “an unusual man” to say what he did in his essay — to think of others and the impact the shooting had on them.

“He’s a pretty neat person,” Moor said.

Echoes of his father

His parents were no longer together when Brian Leeper was killed. Still, when she looks at her son, Schrag says she sees echoes of his father.

“There’ll be things he does with his hands … the way he eats, really simple things,” Schrag said. “And I’ll go, ‘Oh, you get that from him.’ ”

Colby Leeper recognizes a few things he inherited from his father, too.

“Competitiveness,” he said. “He was super-competitive. I am, too.”

Colby Leeper figures he would have beaten his father by now in a one-on-one game of hoops.

“He had a pretty good jump shot,” he said of his dad. But he says he’s got a good one, too.

He figures he got his ornery streak from his father as well.

“He was a troublemaker,” Colby Leeper said with a chuckle. “I look for trouble here and there.”

He hopes to become a teacher and coach after getting his degree at Missouri Southern, where he throws the javelin on the track team. He feels like he is on something of a mission now.

“I’m the last Leeper left, so I’m trying to make a name for it, you know?” he said.

This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 7:58 PM with the headline "Teen whose dad was shot to death gets scholarship from unlikely source."