Smith appealing murder conviction; hearing is Oct. 21

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Oral arguments will be heard by the 11th Court of Appeals in Eastland on Oct. 21 as attorneys for James Robert Smith are appealing his 2014 first-degree murder conviction.
Smith was convicted for the Oct. 26, 2012 death of his daughter, Mattie Smith, in June 2014. A jury found him guilty of murder and Smith was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Attorneys for Smith, Amos W. “Trey” Keith III and Jeffrey A. Propst, filed an appeal earlier this year and the 11th Court of Appeals scheduled the hearing for 10 a.m. Oct. 21. Smith’s attorneys are seeking a new trial.
During the trial, Smith’s attorneys said the shooting was accidental.
In their appeal, Smith’s attorneys stated, “The trial court erred by not including an instruction on voluntariness of conduct in the jury charge despite defense counsel’s specific request for such an instruction, and the trial court’s failure to do so caused ‘some harm’ to the appellant (Smith).”
“The appellant was entitled to such an instruction because evidence was raised through appellant’s testimony that the gunshot that killed Mattie was accidentally discharged from the gun,” the appeal states. “Appellant suffered some harm because the jury was not given the appropriate instruction on the sole issue presented by the defense, and nothing in the jury charge as a whole alleviated the harm.”
District Attorney Ben Smith, in his written response to the appeal, stated, “Because the evidence presented at trial did not raise the issue of voluntariness and because a trial court is not required to include an instruction in the jury charge which merely negates an element of the offense, the trial court did not abuse its discretion by denying the requested jury instruction regarding voluntariness. Had the trial court been required to submit the requested instruction, the error, if any, was harmless.”
Mattie Smith was shot by her father after attempting to help her mother, Jeannie Collins, who was also shot by James Smith, according to testimony during the trial.
According to trial testimony included in the appeal documents, “According to Jeannie, while Mattie was on the floor hugging Jeannie, James walked up behind Mattie, and Jeannie heard the shot that killed Mattie. Then Jeannie testified that her mentally disabled son, Jermaine, came into the room, and she told him to go get help. Jeannie denied having a knife or a broom when she entered the bedroom just before she was shot.”