CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County jury has convicted a man of second degree murder in a 2021 shooting death.

The 12-member jury found Michael Wayne Smith guilty Thursday afternoon in the shooting death of Cheyenne Johnson. Her body was found in a well in the Sissonville area.

Prosecutors were seeking a first degree murder conviction but the panel returned a guilty verdict on the lesser charge. The jury also found Smith guilty of concealment of a dead body, malicious assault, assault during a felony and a firearms charge. He was found not guilty on a second firearms charge.

Johnson was reported missing in 2021 and the investigation led to the home of Virginia Smith, with whom Michael Smith was in a relationship, where Michael Smith admitted to shooting and killing Johnson.

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