David W. Smith pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and abandonment of a corpse in the shooting of Shawn E. Spencer in April 2006 during a hearing Monday at the Camden County Courthouse.
Smith was originally arrested and charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in June 2015 for the alleged shooting of Spencer. He was also originally scheduled for a jury trial Monday. However, on Nov. 14, 26th Judicial District Circuit Judge Kenneth Hayden accepted a request from Smith's attorney to strike the trial dates and set a plea hearing for Nov. 28.
Smith will serve 15 years on the class B felony voluntary manslaughter charge and four years on the class D felony abandonment of a corpse charge. Smith will serve the 19 years in prison consecutively. It is the maximum sentence for each count.
On April 1, 2006, deputies responded to a report of a shooting at a residence on Silver Mountain Drive in Camdenton. According to the Camden County Sheriff's Office, deputies were unable to locate the reporting party after a foot search and after speaking to Smith, who owned the residence and 28.6 acres of land at the location. They cleared from the scene determining the call to be unfounded.
According to a probable cause statement, on April 18, 2007, Shawn Spencer's mother, Pamela S. Gilbert, came to the sheriff's office to report her son missing. She explained Spencer had been missing for approximately one year, but due to his transient lifestyle, it was not uncommon for him to go missing for extended periods of time. He was listed as a missing person, but the case went cold.
On June 23, 2011, Sgt. Chris Moehle, who was a detective with Camden County Sheriff's Office at the time, spoke with Jake L. East, who said on April 1, 2006, he and Spencer went to Smith's residence to check on East's dog, which had been staying there. Spencer and Smith allegedly remained behind the house talking, while East went back to the car to visit his dog.
East told Moehle approximately five minutes later, he heard a shot. When East went back to see what happened, he allegedly observed Spencer and Smith rolling around on the ground fighting over control of the gun. Not knowing what to do, East went back to his car, drove away and then called the sheriff's office to report the shooting.
Jarrod Powell, who lived with Smith for one to two years, and the wife of the accused, Carolina Smith, made additional statements and shared details of how Smith killed and disposed of Spencer, as well as covered up evidence.
Detectives secured a warrant for Smith's arrest, and he was arrested June 9, 2015.
Smith's jury trial was rescheduled twice before. The first was when the defense requested for a change of judge, delaying the jury trial from March to May. The second time took place at the pre-trial conference May 6 when the state filed an attorney conflict and asked the May trial date be stricken for the record. Hayden ordered the jury trial which was then set for Monday. Smith also pleaded not guilty at that May 6 hearing.