Flash on Five Points video offers clues in trial of suspect accused of paralyzing USC student

Flashes and sparks on grainy surveillance videos from Five Points could hold the key to whether Michael Juan Smith is held responsible for shooting and paralyzing a University of South Carolina student two years ago.

Quick bursts of light from the videos were the subject of most of Friday’s testimony in the trial of Smith, a fast food worker facing attempted murder and firearms charges in the incident that left student Martha Childress unable to walk. In October 2013, Childress was waiting for a ride back to campus from Five Points when a shot hit her in the back, causing the young woman to crumple to the ground.

A key question is whether a flash discussed in detail Friday represented a gunshot from someone other than Smith. His attorneys focused attention on the flash in an attempt to show their 22-year-old client is innocent. They suggested that a gun hitting the ground discharged and caused the flash seen in the surveillance videos and pictures.

But prosecutors say it was Smith who fired the shot randomly into the crowd after an argument with another man – and a federal investigator supported that contention with his testimony Friday in Richland County.

Investigator Brian Van Houten dismissed the notion that the flash seen on video came from someone other than Smith. Van Houten, with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said the flash in question came from a cigarette that had been tossed to the ground.

“It was very consistent with a hot ember,” Van Houten said, noting that other people in the video also had cigarettes that produced the same types of sparks.

Under questioning from defense lawyer Aimee Zmroczek, Van Houten said it’s possible a flash came from the muzzle of a gun hitting the ground and discharging, but “I’ve ruled it out.” When questioned by prosecutors, Van Houten said he didn’t know of any reason that another person should have been arrested, aside from Smith.

Friday’s testimony came on the fourth-day of trial in a case that has drawn great interest across South Carolina. Five Points, where the shooting happened, is a popular entertainment district frequented by thousands of USC students, alumni and others – particularly on big football weekends in the fall. The shooting occurred near the Five Points fountain not far from the corner of Greene and Harden streets, a busy intersection frequented by weekend revelers.

Childress, a freshman when the shooting occurred, was in court Friday. She and her family calmly watched testimony. They huddled with prosecutors briefly after the trial ended for the day. Childress, who’s from Greenville County, has undergone physical therapy since the shooting and has been praised for an upbeat attitude.

The trial is expected to wrap up early next week. The prosecution rested its case Friday after saying that two witnesses said Smith fired a gun that night. The defense will bring on witnesses Monday.

Smith, whose mother testified that he worked with her at a sandwich shop on Broad River Road, could get 51 years in prison if convicted of the state charges. He already has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on a weapons charge related to the shooting.

He chose not to testify Friday in his own defense. An acquaintance testified in court this week that Smith claims not to have fired the gun that struck Childress. Smith also said he was shot at by someone else, according to testimony earlier this week. He claimed he picked up the gun fired by someone else, a Columbia police investigator said.

On Friday, Smith was quiet and respectful when questioned by the judge on whether he wanted to testify.

But that image is different than the one described by a Richland County gang expert during testimony.

Smith has been a gang member since he was 15, said Richland County Sheriff’s Department investigator Vince Goggins. He was the only person in Five Points that night whose name came up at the trial who has been documented to be in a gang, Goggins said.

The gang Smith was involved with “is one of the larger gangs in the state,” Goggins said.

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 12:52 PM.