Montgomery cop AC Smith found guilty of manslaughter in Greg Gunn killing

OZARK — Montgomery Police Officer AC Smith is guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of Greg Gunn, a Dale County jury found Friday.

Smith faced murder charges in the shooting death of Gunn, who Smith chased, tased and beat through a west Montgomery neighborhood in the early hours of Feb. 25, 2016. The jury was also instructed to consider a lesser manslaughter charge.

Smith sat behind a leather-bound Bible at the defense table as members of the jury, who deliberated for about two hours, were led into the courtroom. Family and supporters of Smith began sobbing as the jury was polled. More than a dozen Gunn family members and supporters stood throughout the reading of the verdict until the jury was led out.

Smith was immediately taken into custody. Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said his office will seek the maximum penalty for the manslaughter charge, 20 years, and will not acquiesce to bond in the case.

"He needs to be in the county jail until he goes to prison, just like everybody else," Bailey said.

'One bad apple in a bunch has been weeded out'

Prosecutors argued Smith, with no legal justification, escalated a consensual stop with Gunn to deadly force, shooting and killing the 58-year-old just feet away from the home he lived in with his mother.

Smith's defense argued Smith feared for his life as a solo, young officer in a "high-crime" area, and that Gunn armed himself with a paint pole from a neighbor's porch, leading Smith to shoot him seven times.

Eighty-two miles southeast of the spot where Gunn died, jurors on Monday entered a county courthouse at the center a bucolic town square, ringed by garland and red ribbons reminiscent of the signs that still sit in yards in Gunn's Mobile Heights neighborhood, featuring a red ribbon and “Justice for Greg Gunn.”

Smith’s defense successfully secured a venue change to rural Dale County, significantly smaller and less racially diverse than Montgomery County, and where a majority white jury was chosen Monday.

"They brought this case to a very conservative county expecting a very different outcome," Franklin Gunn, Greg Gunn's brother, said after the verdict came down. "But I believe we have seen the best of Alabama today. One bad apple in a bunch has been weeded out. I believe the state of Alabama, the city of Montgomery, has shown that we are strong. We won’t let anyone, with their views or actions, hamper forward progress for the state."

Two families awaited the verdict on Friday: One black and one white, both grounded in law enforcement — Gunn's father one of Montgomery's first black cops, and later a prison guard, while Smith is third-generation law enforcement — and separated by the Dale County courtroom's center aisle. Tears flowed on both sides of the aisle during the week, as Smith was cross-examined and as photos of Gunn's bloodied body were shown to the jury.

"The most important thing to know is how much this man loved his community, and how much his community loved him, through ups and downs," Kenneth Gunn said after the verdict. "We stayed committed, as a family to honor our father's name in law enforcement, to let the justice system work. We never got violent. You can get justice if you let the law prevail. Even though my brother is gone, I feel like he would be proud of his siblings today who are honoring his name."

When and where Gunn was shot

Gunn died on the shooting scene, lying in the grass outside his next door neighbor's home in a residential neighborhood in west Montgomery. His liver, stomach and bowels were ruptured by two bullets. Another passed through his left lung. Another shattered his right wrist and arm, a fifth fractured his hip, a medical expert testified.

At around 3:20 on the morning of Feb. 25, 2016, Smith stopped Gunn in his Mobile Heights neighborhood, where the 58-year-old was walking home from a card game. Smith asked Gunn to submit to a random stop-and-frisk, one which prosecutors argued Smith had no legal basis to conduct and Gunn had no obligation to submit to.

Midway through the pat-down, Gunn fled from Smith who chased, tased and beat Gunn before shooting at him seven times.

Some of the story still remains unclear

What happened between Smith's patrol car and the spot where Gunn would die is unclear: Smith failed to turn on his body or dash camera, and he has given multiple conflicting accounts of why he gave chase and escalated the incident to lethal force. Smith first said Gunn struck him with a paint pole, and that he and Gunn wrestled on the ground. Later, Smith said Gunn picked the pole up and raised it as if to strike him. Later, Gunn was picking up the pole and turning when Smith shot.

His defense said the different accounts were trauma-induced.

"I don’t know exactly the way the anatomy of my brain works, but I was in a traumatic incident and it affected me immediately after the shooting," Smith said. "I dream about it at night. I wake up, and it’s the first thing I think about in the morning when I wake up. As time goes on, new details come up."

Deputy District Attorney Scott Green described the officer as the aggressor in the incident, not Gunn.

"Even today, (Smith) said the guy kind of bumped up against him a little bit, and it was AC Smith who pushed him back against the car, forcefully. It wasn’t Greg Gunn," Green said. "He’s not gonna be disrespected on the street. So, he slings him back up against the car. He’s the one who started all this."

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Smith became combative on the stand

For much of the trial, Smith, dressed in dark suits, sat quietly at the defense stand. Fairly soft-spoken, to the point a court reporter asked him to speak up once, he often stared down at the defense table as prosecutors spoke. But under cross-examination on Thursday, Smith grew heated and combative, so much so that District Attorney Daryl Bailey said the cop showed his "true colors" when he bristled at being questioned, calling him "arrogant."

"It was interesting today that the defendant said he told us the truth in every statement," Bailey said. "He’s kind of arrogant, if you haven’t noticed. Did you see him get pissed off on the stand? That’s the true Officer Smith on the stand there. ... His true colors started coming out. He’s been prepped. He’s got a suit, and a haircut. He can’t come in here acting like a jackass. But in the end, he couldn’t help it."

Throughout the ups and downs of the case, Smith, now 26, has remained relatively obscure. He is still employed by the Montgomery Police Department, paid but on administrative leave.

He has not spoken publicly about the shooting, apart from court testimony hearings where he said he felt he did "everything right" by stopping Gunn.

"That's what hurts most," Gunn-Powell, Greg Gunn's niece, said. "The fact that when something like this takes place and it seems like somebody doesn't have any remorse. I haven't seen any remorse for what has been done. A choice was made. That choice wasn't the right choice. And even if it was a mistake, at some point you need to say that you're sorry for what you've done. That's justice as well."

What happened with the paint roller?

The defense argued Gunn was a "criminal," whose autopsy showed cocaine was in his system at the time of his death, a fact undisputed by prosecutors. Defense attorney Mickey McDermott said Smith didn't have the right to use lethal force until Gunn picked up a metal paint pole on his neighbor's porch, allegedly "arming himself" against the officer.

"When he chose to arm himself, Officer Smith and the citizen Aaron Cody Smith were about to die and everyone in the room knows that," McDermott said. "Whether you’re mistaken or being misled, Officer Smith and Aaron Cody Smith were going to die. He chose to live for himself."

In his closing statement, Bailey suggested the pole may have been planted by responding officers to the scene. Smith told investigators that when he shot Gunn, Gunn fell backwards and the pole hit the house, landing propped up at an angle. But in crime scene photographs shown of Gunn's body, the pole lies almost perfectly parallel to his body, its paint roller smudged with bright red blood. Gunn's left hand is seen clenching a black baseball cap.

"How in the world do you think he’s picking up this paint roller and doing all this swinging and all this threatening, and still holding his baseball hat in his hand?" Bailey asked.

A.C. Smith resigns

Hours after the verdict, Smith resigned from the Montgomery Police Department. Through Friday, Smith pulled a city of Montgomery salary from paid administrative leave.

Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said Friday he “disagreed” with the city’s decision to keep him on paid staff for the nearly four years he was accused of murder.

More: Convicted A.C. Smith resigns from Montgomery Police Department

Greg Gunn murder trial: Case against Montgomery police officer AC Smith The 58-year-old was shot and killed by Montgomery police officer Aaron Cody Smith in 2016. Nearly four years later, the trial will be held in Ozark, Alabama.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Melissa Brown at 334-240-0132 or mabrown@gannett.com.