United States of America v. George McEntire Smith

Muskogee, Oklahoma criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with first-degree murder and causing the death of another during the commission of an 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) offense.



On April 8, 2021, Smith spent the day with his great-uncle, Jimmy

Arthur. Together, they visited a pawn shop where Smith sold a rifle and

attempted to sell a .25 caliber Hawes pistol. Then they went to Taco Bell and

brought the food back to Arthur's home. After lunch, Smith left to go to his

house across the street where he lived with his grandfather, but later returned to

Arthur's house to ask Arthur to take him to Walmart. While the men were at the

store, Lena, Arthur's wife, ingested half a sleeping pill and some medication in

preparation for a colonoscopy the next day and fell asleep on the couch in the

back living room. When Arthur and Smith returned home that evening, they

went to the dining table in the kitchen to play cards.



About 10:00 p.m., someone fatally shot Arthur in the back of his head

and neck while he was seated at his dining table. Lena awakened to the gunfire,

saw Smith standing at the end of the couch, and then went into the bathroom for

Appellate Case: 23-70873



10–15 minutes. She did not see any blood on Smith or a gun. Smith told her to

stay in the bathroom, but she didn't listen. When she exited the bathroom, she

saw Smith holding a blue tarp and standing next to Arthur's dead body, which

was lying on a sheet in the front living room. Smith had moved the body from

the kitchen, but Lena told Smith not to disturb the evidence by covering the

body. Lena asked Smith if he had called 911, and Smith told Lena he had. But

Lena wanted to make sure the police had been notified, so at 10:04 p.m., Smith

and Lena called the police together. During the call, Smith told Lena to tell the

911-operator that some men had broken into the house, shot Arthur twice, and

then fled. That was the only call placed to 911.



When police arrived at the house at 10:10 p.m., Smith was waiting

outside for them. Smith told the officers that he and his uncle had been playing

cards at the dining table when one or two masked assailants entered through the

front door and shot Arthur. 1 One officer remained with Smith while the others

entered the house to investigate.

Stepping into the house, the officers saw Arthur's body lying several feet

away on the floor in the front living room, atop the drop cloth. From the

doorway, police could see most of the dining table and the kitchen straight

ahead, separated from the front living room by an archway. The dining table fit

six chairs—two each on the sides and one each on the ends. The left end of the

1 Smith's account of the number of intruders varied among his

statements.



table was pushed against a side wall, leaving the other end in the walkway. The

two chairs on the far side of the table were pushed back away from the table,

and the chair from the right end of the table was turned so that it aligned with

the two chairs, forming a row of three. The stove and refrigerator were several

feet behind the second and third chairs.



Police located blood on the front living room carpet, the kitchen floor,

the kitchen ceiling, the refrigerator, and the seat cushions of the first and

second dining chairs. Smith caused the blood to be in the living room by

moving Arthur's body there. The backrest of the second dining chair was

saturated with blood.



Police found a single spent .25 caliber shell casing on the third dining

chair but never located a second shell casing. And though there were unfired

rounds of .25 caliber ammunition in a different room, the unfired casings were

made of a different material than the fired casing was. Police searched a shed

on the property and the land surrounding the house, but they did not find any

gun or ammunition associated with the shooting.



Outside the house, Smith spoke to several officers about what happened.

In a recorded interview with FBI Agent Gil de Rubio, Smith recounted his day

with Arthur, including their trip to the pawn shop to "pawn one of [Smith's] old

guns.” Supp. R. vol. II (Gov't Ex. 118), at 9:43. When asked about the gun,

Smith said it was a 10 mm assault rifle. Agent Gil de Rubio asked whether

Smith had other guns, and Smith said he didn't have any. Agent Gil de Rubio

Appellate Case: 23-70875



followed up, pointing out that Smith had used the plural "guns.” Id. at 10:29.

Smith replied that he'd had other guns but didn't currently have any others.

Smith did not mention the .25 caliber Hawes pistol and denied ever owning a

pistol.



A different officer, Detective Blair, collected samples from Smith's

hands and face to test for gunshot residue ("GSR”). Smith agreed to go with

Detective Blair to the police station so that Detective Blair could collect

samples from his clothes. At the station, Smith gave another statement to the

police about the events of the evening. He maintained that a masked intruder

entered the house and killed Arthur. Police did not arrest Smith.

After providing the samples and statements, Smith left the police station

and returned to Lena's home to collect his belongings. By then, Lena's son-in-

law was there, and he asked Smith if he had killed Arthur. Smith said he hadn't

and that he would not do that to family. When Smith left, the son-in-law saw

Smith walk somewhere behind the house.



Five or six days after the shooting, police returned to Lena's house and

searched the back and side yards with a metal detector, but they did not find

any evidence. Less than one week after that search, on April 20, officers

searched Smith's home. They seized a pair of shoes, blue jeans, sweatpants, and

a hat from Smith's bedroom. The jeans had some of Smith's blood on them, and

the sweatpants—which Smith had worn on the night of the shooting—had a

mixture of blood from at least two people, consistent with Smith and Arthur.

Police also found a small gun holster but did not find any firearms.



That same day, Agent Gil de Rubio and Detective Blair again interviewed

Smith. Smith maintained that he had not shot Arthur and that an intruder had

done so. The officers, having since learned that Smith had tried to pawn a .25

caliber Hawes pistol the day of the shooting, asked what had happened to the

gun. Smith said that the gun wasn't his and that it had gone missing before

Arthur was killed. At the end of the interview, the officers arrested Smith for

murdering Arthur.





* * *



Smith was indicted on three counts relating to a shooting death in Indian

Country. He went to trial on Count One, murder in Indian Country, 18 U.S.C.

§§ 1111(a), 1151 & 1153; and Count Three, causing the death of another person

with a firearm, 18 U.S.C. § 924(j)(1). After a five-day trial, a jury convicted

Smith on both counts. The district court sentenced Smith to a mandatory

sentence of life in prison.



The court entered final judgment, and Smith timely

appealed.

Affirmed