Posted in Felonies on December 4, 2014
John Garrett Smith, 46, has been found guilty of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault in Clark County. The clean energy entrepreneur attacked his wife last year inside their home. He was acquitted of first-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault. His sentencing has been scheduled for December 22.
Smith punched his wife, Sheryl Smith, several times in the face and grabbed her by the neck. The attack was at first suspected to be a severe domestic violence-related assault, but after an audio recording of the attack on the defendant’s cellphone was found the deputy prosecutor was able to charge him with attempted murder. Smith said “I will kill you” to his wife during the attack, and the threat was caught on the recording.
According to the prosecutor he quit strangling Sheryl Smith when she lost consciousness and seemed to have stopped breathing, and then fled their home, apparently leaving her for dead. The judge said that he was convinced Smith had formed the intent to kill his wife, but that he was not convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that he had planned the attempted murder ahead of time, which would have been required for a first-degree murder conviction.
Garrett Smith declined trial in front of a jury, and in court stated that he had not tried to kill his wife and that the words in the audio recording were taken out of context. He claimed that he was trying to say “If we drink like this and we fight like this, we are going to kill each other.” Smith admitted that he punched Sheryl Smith but denied strangling her. The prosecutor pointed out inconsistencies in Garrett Smith’s past accounts of the incident.
Sheryl Smith suffered several injuries, including a broken nose, a concussion, a back injury, cuts and bruises, and cognitive damage, including memory loss. She said that she has had to undergo occupational, speech and physical therapy to recover her speech and mobility. Garrett Smith’s Vancouver defense attorney argued that her client’s wife had financial motive to exaggerate her injuries because while her husband has been incarcerated she has been in control of his businesses and possibly profiting from them. The prosecutor pointed out that, to the contrary, Sheryl Smith had to move out of their $1.3 million home to live in a garage because of financial difficulties.
Source: The Columbian, “Vancouver man found guilty of trying to kill his wife,” Paris Achen, December 3, 2014.
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