Man sentenced as teen to 65 years for murder seeks retrial; media barred from hearing

WETUMPKA — Media were barred Friday morning from a hearing about a 2015 Elmore County murder case that has drawn national and international media attention.

Circuit Judge Sibley Reynolds, the original trial judge, handed down the order barring the media. The proceeding was a Rule 32 hearing seeking a retrial, or at least re-sentencing, for LaKeith Smith, who was sentenced as a teenager in 2018 to 65 years in prison for a shooting death the he personally did not commit..

Since Smith’s conviction on felony murder, burglary and two counts of theft of property charges in 2018, civil rights and justice reform groups have sought a retrial or re-sentencing in what they feel was an unusually harsh prison term.

The effort has gathered support across social media platforms and has received coverage from local, national and international media.

Barring the press was an unusual move for Reynolds. He has served on the bench more than 30 years and has a reputation of being a media-friendly jurist.

“We had several people loosely identified as media who wanted to attend the proceedings,” Reynolds said after the hearing. “To ensure the security and decorum of the hearing I issued an order barring media representatives.

“Unfortunately, it had to be a broad-ranging order covering our local media outlets,” he said.

Reynolds’ order allowed only those who had been subpoenaed for the hearing to attend. Dozens of Smith’s supporters, and several relatives, were also barred from the courtroom by the order.

Inside the courtroom, progress was made, said Leroy Maxwell, one of Smith’s attorneys.

“We argued that LaKeith’s felony murder ruling be overturned, and that, if not, then he be resentenced to a sentence to reflect that he was not the trigger man in the shooting of A’Donte Washington,” Maxwell said. “Also, LaKeith was 15 years old at the time of the offense.

“We are pleased by the response of the court and district attorney’s office, and are hopeful that the court will grant our petition for LaKeith to be resentenced and to come home.”

Reynolds took the matter under advisement and will render a decision at a later date.

District Attorney C.J. Robinson said his office protests any effort that seeks a new trial for Smith, but does not protest a new sentencing hearing.

“There may be some elements of ineffective counsel in the sentencing,” Robinson said of the original defense attorney. “It has been argued that evidence showing mitigating factors was not presented at the original sentencing. I don’t have a problem with a resentencing if the court, indeed, finds that evidence showing mitigating factors was not presented at the original sentencing.”

In February 2015, Smith was part of a group of five juveniles who broke into two homes in Millbrook during the daytime. When Millbrook Police Department officers went to the second home, the burglary was in progress and officers were fired on by several of the teens as the officers arrived. A gunfight ensued.

A’Donte Washington, 16, was shot and killed by a Millbrook officer after he ran through the gate of a wooden privacy fence, armed, toward the officer. Body camera footage played during Smith’s 2018 trial showed Washington was armed with what later was determined to be a .38 caliber revolver.

Smith was tried and convicted under the state’s accomplice law. It states that a person is legally liable for the behavior of another who commits a criminal offense if that person aids or abets the first person in committing the offense.

Smith was accused of being criminally responsible for the acts that led to Washington's death, the gist of Alabama's accomplice law. An Elmore County grand jury cleared the officer who fired the fatal shots; the officer's name was not released.

Smith was offered a 25-year sentence as part of a plea bargain, but chose to go to trial. After his conviction, Reynolds sentenced him to 30 years in prison for felony murder, 15 years for burglary and 10 years each on two theft of property convictions. Reynolds ruled that the sentences were to be served consecutively.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals later upheld the conviction upon review, but shaved 10 years off the sentence, finding that the theft of property sentences could not be served consecutively. That left Smith serving 55 years

The effort for a new trial or resentencing began gathering broad spread support following the death of George Floyd in 2020 and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Man sentenced as teen to 65 years for Elmore murder seeks retrial