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Thread: Lincoln S. Rutledge Sentenced to LWOP in 2016 OH Murder of S.W.A.T. Officer Steven Smith

  1. #11
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    Rutledge convicted of purposely killing officer; death penalty an option for jury

    By John Futty
    The Columbus Dispatch

    The widow of Columbus Police Officer Steven Smith wept on the shoulder of their son Thursday as a Franklin County jury returned verdicts that made the officer’s killer eligible for the death penalty.

    Lincoln S. Rutledge, 45, was convicted of purposely killing Smith during a SWAT standoff after barricading himself inside his Clintonville apartment on April 10, 2016.

    The jurors will return to Common Pleas Court on Monday for a hearing at which the defense will present mitigating factors in hopes of convincing them to recommend a life sentence rather than death.

    The jury deliberated for about 16 hours over three days before finding Rutledge guilty of aggravated murder in Smith’s shooting death. Jurors found that Rutledge knew he was shooting at a law-enforcement officer, was attempting to kill two or more people and that he committed the crime to escape detection or apprehension. Each of those findings, known as specifications, makes him eligible for a death sentence.

    If the jury decides that death isn’t the appropriate penalty, they must recommend a sentence of life in prison without parole or life with a chance of parole after 25 or 30 years.

    A Franklin County jury hasn’t recommended a death sentence since 2003.

    The officer’s son, Jesse Smith, came to court from the Columbus Police Academy, where he is a member of the recruit class that will graduate as officers in July. Dressed in his recruit uniform, he sat in the second row behind the prosecution and comforted his mother, Lisa Smith, in the packed courtroom.

    Officer Smith, 54, was a 27-year veteran of the police force.

    Family members declined comment after the verdicts were announced by Judge Mark Serrott.

    Rutledge didn’t react to the verdicts, staring straight ahead and remaining motionless, as he has throughout the trial.

    The spectators included four of Smith’s fellow SWAT officers, three of whom testified at the trial.

    Officer Tim O’Donnell, who was part of the standoff that night and testified about it, said after the verdict that the SWAT teams honor Smith every time they respond to a call.

    “We had a barricade probably two or three days after his funeral,” O’Donnell said. “So we just picked up and went to work. That’s what Steve would have wanted and that’s what we’ve done ever since. That’s the best tribute to him, that we went back to work, and we’re still doing our job.”

    The jury of seven men and five women also convicted Rutledge of two counts of attempted murder and four counts of felonious assault for other officers who were in the line of fire during the standoff; 10 gun specifications; and one count of aggravated arson for setting his estranged wife’s house on fire.

    Officers were attempting to serve Rutledge with an arrest warrant on the arson charge when he barricaded himself in the apartment on West California Avenue near North High Street, setting off an all-night standoff with SWAT officers.

    Rutledge’s now ex-wife testified that he exhibited increasingly erratic, threatening behavior in the weeks before the fire was set. He had walked away from an $87,000-a-year IT job at Ohio State University.

    Testimony showed that he fired shots from a 9mm handgun several times during the standoff. The fatal gunfire occurred at 2:33 a.m. when a SWAT officer began using a pole to clear glass and blinds from a rear bedroom window to get a better look inside. Smith was in the turret of an armored vehicle, providing cover for the officers outside the window, when he was struck just above the left eye by a shot fired from inside the bedroom.

    Key to the evidence of his purpose to kill officers was testimony that he announced he was invoking the Castle Doctrine when a SWAT team slammed open the front door of his apartment. That law allows citizens to use deadly force against an unlawful entry into their home, but not against officers with a warrant.

    Rutledge announced his intention to use deadly force toward officers and reinforced it with his behavior throughout the standoff, Assistant Prosecutors Daniel Hogan and Warren Edwards told the jury in closing arguments.

    Defense attorney Jefferson Liston said in his closing argument that Rutledge was shooting at the pole that was placed in the bedroom where he was holed up, not at the officers outside. He argued that a conviction for a lesser charge of murder was more appropriate than aggravated murder.

    http://www.dispatch.com/news/2017062...ption-for-jury
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  2. #12
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Man sentenced to life in prison for death of Columbus Police Officer Steven Smith

    By John Futty
    The Columbus Dispatch

    A sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for the man who purposely killed Columbus Police Officer Steven Smith during a SWAT standoff was of little comfort to the officer’s family members who gathered Tuesday in a Franklin County courtroom.

    “The knowledge that he will spend his life in prison, and not be able to cause the pain that our family has experienced to any others, would be the smallest consolation we may receive moving forward in our lives,” the officer’s daughter-in-law, Sydney Smith, told Common Pleas Judge Mark Serrott.

    The judge imposed the life-without-parole sentence, which a jury had recommended for Lincoln S. Rutledge, plus 66 years for shooting at other officers, setting fire to his estranged wife’s house and using a gun in his crimes. The jury decided against imposing the death penalty for the April 10, 2016, slaying.

    Rutledge, 45, was given an opportunity to make a statement before sentencing. “No thank you, judge,” he replied.

    The response didn’t go over well with Serrott, but was in keeping with Rutledge’s demeanor throughout the trial, during which he sat motionless, stared straight ahead and didn’t react to anything happening in the courtroom.

    “You’ve shown nothing in this case. Nothing,” the judge said. “I find it hard to believe you have nothing to say. No remorse whatsoever. I’m not a mental-health expert, but I know at least some of the jurors believed that you were faking. They struggled with the credibility of whether or not you were actually suffering from mental-health issues during the trial.”

    The jury convicted Rutledge on June 22 of aggravated murder for purposely killing the officer, making him eligible for the death penalty. The following week, they listened to defense witnesses whose testimony focused heavily on Rutledge’s mental health in an effort to convince them that a death sentence was inappropriate.

    It took the jury about eight hours of deliberations to reach its sentencing recommendation, which had to be unanimous.

    Smith, known as “Mike” to family and friends, was 54 years old and a 27-year veteran of the force. He left his wife, Lisa, one daughter and and one son, whose wife spoke for the family during the hearing. They were among about a dozen family and friends who attended.

    “It’s been a long 15 months and we want to start healing as a family,” Lisa Smith said after the hearing. “That’s all we want to do.”

    Smith’s son, Jesse, graduated this month from the Columbus police academy and is wearing his father’s badge number. He and Syndey Smith had their first child, a girl, after his father’s death.

    “Regretfully, she will go through life with only stories of her larger-than-life grandfather,” Sydney Smith said.

    In addition to aggravated murder, the jurors convicted Rutledge of two counts of attempted murder and four counts of felonious assault for other officers who were in the line of fire, eight gun specifications and aggravated arson for setting the fire at his now ex-wife’s house.

    SWAT officers, including Smith, were attempting to serve Rutledge with a warrant in the arson case when he barricaded himself inside his Clintonville apartment on West California Avenue near North High Street, creating an all-night standoff.

    Smith was in the open turret of an armored vehicle, providing cover for officers who were using a pole to remove glass and blinds from a bedroom where Rutledge was holed up, when Rutledge began firing from inside. One of the shots struck Smith in the head.

    He died two days later.

    “While there is little to provide us comfort when considering this void in our lives, we are grateful that the individual who has been found guilty of this crime was not able to harm any of Mike’s fellow officers that day,” Sydney Smith said.

    The judge praised the SWAT team, which didn’t fire a shot until hours after the standoff began and long after Rutledge first fired at officers, for “exercising great restraint.” Just one of the two dozen officers on the scene fired his rifle, grazing Rutledge’s shoulder with one of several shots.

    “Had I been on the scene, and I’m not a professional, but I guarantee I’d have been shooting at you from the beginning once you fired shots,” Serrott told Rutledge.

    Those who attended the sentencing included two of the jurors who convicted Rutledge during the month-long process from jury selection through the sentencing deliberations.

    The trial “affected me greatly,” juror Lyn Leffler told The Dispatch when asked why she wanted to be at the hearing. “When I finally went home, I was in mourning for the Smith family. It took so much of our time, I wanted to see it through to its conclusion.”

    She said she was among the jurors who weren’t convinced that Rutledge was mentally ill.

    http://www.dispatch.com/news/2017071...r-steven-smith
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  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    Another thug gets away with life. Again, it should be up to a majority of jurors, not the unanimous set.

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