GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) - Attorneys for a Greenwood doctor charged in a murder-for-hire case are asking the attorney general’s office for details of what happened in the 2012 fatal shooting at a lawyer’s office.
Dr. Arnold Smith, 71, is charged with murder as the alleged instigator of a plot that ended April 28, 2012, with the death of gunman Keaira Byrd and the serious wounding Derrick Lacy. Byrd allegedly was hired to kill attorney Lee Abraham, who represented Smith’s ex-wife in their divorce years ago. Smith is also charged with two counts of conspiring to murder Abraham.
Three investigators from the attorney general’s office were at Abraham’s office when Byrd and Lacy arrived. Byrd was killed and Lacy was wounded. Abraham was not injured in the gunfire.
The Greenwood Commonwealth reports (https://bit.ly/1aOVHOf) that Smith’s lawyers argue the state is required to turn over the identity of the agent who killed Byrd and provide the weapons used so forensic experts hired by the defense can conduct their own tests.
The criminal case against Smith has been on hold indefinitely since Circuit Court Judge Breland Hilburn ruled in December that Smith was unfit to stand trial.
Smith is being held at the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield, where he will continue to undergo evaluation for at least seven more months. Then another hearing will be held to re-examine his competency.
In the motion, Smith’s lawyers argue that, even though Smith has been declared incompetent, his attorneys have an obligation to continue preparing a defense for a possible trial.
No hearing has yet been scheduled on the motion.
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Information from: The Greenwood Commonwealth, https://www.gwcommonwealth.com
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