SC judge denies bond for Five Points alleged shooter Smith in USC student case

A circuit court judge on Monday denied bond for Michael Juan Smith, the alleged perpetrator in a highly publicized 2013 Five Points shooting that paralyzed for life a University of South Carolina freshman, on charges stemming from that shooting.

In a way, the bond denial — which related to the 2013 shooting of USC student Martha Childress — for Smith, 28, had little practical effect because Smith will likely not be getting out of jail for years.

But the bond denial by state Judge G. Thomas Cooper carried a significant emotional impact for the family of Smith’s purported 2013 shooting victim, Martha Childress, who objected at Monday’s hearing to any bond being set at all for Smith.

The hearing, at which bond was the central issue, took place because last March, the S.C. Supreme Court overturned Smith’s 2015 jury conviction for felony attempted murder and the 30-year-prison sentence given Smith by state Judge Robert Hood at that time.

That high court reversal allowed Smith’s attorney, Aimee Zmroczek, on Monday to ask state Judge Cooper to set a bond for Smith. If Cooper granted the bond, that could clear the way for Smith to be transferred to federal prison, where he could begin chipping away at a 10-year federal prison sentence for being a felon in possession of a weapon.

A condition of that 10-year federal sentence, imposed in 2014, was that it is to be served consecutively, or after, any sentence Smith gets in the Childress shooting case.

Since Smith’s sentence for allegedly shooting Childress was overturned, there appears to be “no movement” in the case from the solicitor’s office and Smith has not been indicted on any new charges, Zmroczek told the judge.

“Mr. Smith is not going anywhere,” Zmroczek told the judge. “I’m just trying to get him into federal prison. We’re not trying to get him on the streets ... state cases are in limbo (because of COVID-19). We are simply asking he be allowed to stop wasting time here.”

Zmroczek’s bid for Smith’s release to federal prison was countered by prosecutor Dan Goldberg with the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office, who told Judge Cooper that Smith should stay in state custody. Goldberg told Judge Cooper that prosecutors are moving quickly to charge Smith again so he can be retried in the Childress shooting.

Goldberg added that while Zmroczek may describe what Smith is doing now as “wasting time,” from the victim’s perspective he is where he belongs until he can be tried again.

“The state has no intention in sitting on this case for years on end,” Goldberg told the judge.

Zmroczek said that while “I certainly understand everyone’s anger,” the denial of bond is not supposed to be of a “punitive nature.”

Speaking on behalf of the Childress family, attorney Joe McCulloch said the family does not want Smith to be sent to a federal prison because any transfer would give him “the opportunity for escape.”

Childress’ mother, Pam Childress Johnson, told the judge that Smith didn’t deserve a bond because he never has expressed sorrow for the shooting.

“He has never shown one ounce of remorse, take responsibility or accountability for what he did to our daughter,” she said, her voice shaking. “I would just beg you leave the defendant where he is and deny bond.”

Smith, who appeared on remote video from the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center, did not speak.

Cooper, having heard all the arguments, said, “Motion for bond is denied.”

Another wrinkle in the case: last week, Smith was indicted on an assault and battery by mob resulting in death in connection with the 2018 Lee Correctional Institution prison riot. The riot resulted in the death of seven inmates and the injuring of 22 more. A guilty conviction on that charge would carry a minimum 30-year sentence.

Smith was at Lee in 2018 serving a 30-year sentence for the Childress shooting. But last spring, after the Supreme Court overturned his conviction, he was transferred to the Richland County Alvin S. Glenn jail where he awaits a new trial in the Childress case.

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 4:48 PM.