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August 2008 |
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Smith convicted in killing, faces life in prison |
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Thursday, 01 November 2007 |
By KELLY DANIELS
Starkville Daily News
After three hours of deliberation, a jury found 36-year-old Thomas Smith guilty of murder Wednesday night in the 2004 shooting death of a Pheba man.
Smith will receive his sentence from Circuit Judge Jim Kitchens today at 10 a.m. A murder conviction carries a sentence of life in prison.
On Jan. 28, 2004, Smith shot Terry Tate, 31, with a 9-millimeter handgun outside Larry C's Store on Highway 15.
Witnesses said that Smith kept Tate from leaving the store when Smith pulled his car directly in front of Tate's car.
Smith got out of his car, approached Tate, asked him, "What's up, now?" and then shot him in front of his three-year-old son, Terry Tate, three of the state's witnesses said.
Yesterday, the state brought its 10th witness, forensic pathologist Steven Hayne, to discuss the nature of Tate's wounds.
After studying Tate's dead body, Haynes found that Tate died from a gunshot wound to the left shoulder, producing massive internal bleeding.
After recovering the lead bullet, which Haynes found in Tate’s liver, and studying Tate’s internal and external wounds, Haynes determined the trajectory of the bullet as traveling from left to right.
“It was only going down at approximately 30 to 40 degrees, and it was going ... forward from back to front,” said Haynes, who also found that the bullet traveled through Tate’s left lung, his heart, his right lung, his diaphragm and finished its journey in Tate’s liver.
Haynes found a displacement of four quarts of blood, which he says is a “lethal loss,” inside Tate’s chest cavity and abdominal cavity.
When asked his opinion of the manner of the death, Haynes said that he thought it was a homicide.
“You testify that it was homicide, but you don’t know anything about the facts or circumstances or what happened, do you?” asked Smith's attorney Joshua Stevens, during the cross examination.
“Not first hand,” answered Haynes.
“But he died from a gunshot wound to the shoulder?” said Stevens.
“Yes, sir.”
The defense makes its case
Stevens focused primarily on disagreements leading up to Tate’s fatal shooting, all of which happened two days prior to the incident.
With the testimony of his first witness, Stevens began building an argument that it was not his client, but Tate, who was the “aggressor” during those two days.
Stevens asked each of his four witnesses, including Smith, if Smith had ever owned a gun and if he was a hunter, and they all answered, “No.”
Harvey Cooper, who lived with Smith’s aunt for some 20 years, reported that about a month prior to the shooting, Smith had moved in with his aunt, Minnie Bell, who was suffering the last phase of esophageal cancer and living on a feeding tube.
“What was his purpose for his (Smith’s) being there?” Stevens asked his witness.
“He just came in to help his aunt, because he knew what kind of shape she was in,” answered Cooper, who calls himself Smith’s stepfather.
Bell’s daughter, Latoya Bell, had recently moved in along with her children. Bell and Tate had been dating for four years, but the details of their relationship were not allowed to surface during the trial.
Cooper recounted the night that Tate entered Minnie Bell’s house and imposed physical aggression on Latoya Bell.
“He came in and pushed Latoya down on our bed, and he was choking her,” said Cooper. “And she (Minnie Bell) was sick in the bed at the time.”
The next evening at Span’s Place, Tate confronted Smith, pushed him outside and hit him on top of his head with a gun, according to Cooper’s reports.
“He knocked a hole in his head,” said Cooper.
During the cross examination, it was revealed that Smith did not call the police or seek medical attention the night he was hit.
However, his mother, Ethel Smith, reported that his head had appeared swollen that night.
Haze-Ellis redirected the focus back to the shooting, when she asked a series of questions intending to compare the severity Tate's death and Smith's head wound.
“Thomas Smith was able to go to bed Monday night, Jan. 26, 2004, after this altercation you talked about, wasn’t he, sir?” asked Haze-Ellis.
“Yeah, he went to bed that night," said Cooper.
“He didn’t kill anybody, did he?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“He didn’t shoot anybody, did he?”
“No.”
“Everybody that was there that night lived another day, didn’t they?”
“That’s right.”
Smith had similar recollections, however his additions included his then assumption that he had done nothing to provoke Tate's attack.
"Were you afraid?" asked Stevens.
"Yes," said Smith.
"Why were you afraid?"
"Because he had a gun in his hand. There wasn't anything I could do."
Smith also said that the next morning at Larry C's he assumed that Tate was armed and was reaching for a gun before he shot him.
Smith also said that he did not block Tate's car and did not walk up to his care, after three of the state's witnesses reported the contrary.
These witnesses also said that Tate had his right hand on a gear shift and his left hand on the steering wheel.
Along with Smith and Cooper, Stevens brought in as witnesses Latoya Bell's sister, Monique Bell, and Smith's mother, Ethel Smith.
The state brought in a rebuttal witness, Oktibbeha County Deputy Sheriff Jon Davis, who arrested Smith.
Davis said that that Smith's wound was merely a "small scab," and when asked about Smith's appearance, Davis said, "His face looked fine."
Post-verdict
After the jury’s verdict was read and Kitchens recessed the trial, Tate's aunt, Angie Tate, threw her hands up and said, "We did it, Terry."
Kitchens asked the courtroom audience to act kind to one another and not make any rude remarks.
"You are neighbors and a lot of you all are kin, so I'm sure there's a lot of tension," said Kitchens.
Smith will be sentenced at the Courthouse Annex on West Main Street.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 02 November 2007 )
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