MARTINEZ — In an emotional hearing, a former Oakland Tribune employee was sentenced to 25 years to life related to the 1983 murder of a Richmond woman.
“I certainly empathize with your loss,” said Sherill Smothers, donning a county jail jumpsuit as he sat Friday afternoon in the defendant’s chair. “But I am not the one responsible. … For the life of me, I don’t understand why I’m the one that’s accused of killing her.”
Smothers, 56, was convicted earlier this year of murdering Marsha Carter, 25, a single mother of four who had dated Smothers. Authorities suspected Smothers was responsible but did not arrest and charge him until 2016, after linking blood found in Carter’s home to Smothers’ DNA.
As Smothers denied responsibility, Carter’s youngest son — sitting a few feet away — bowed his head.
Carter turned up missing from her home in December 1983. Nearly two weeks later, her body was discovered in the trunk of a car in the Sacramento area. She had been stabbed more than 30 times.
While convicting him of first-degree murder, jurors acquitted Smothers of personally using a knife to kill Carter, which would have added a year to his sentence. Several members of Smothers’ family, some of them in tears when they spoke, asked Judge John Kennedy to sentence Smothers to probation in lieu of prison.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever had a (murder) case or read of one where probation makes more sense,” Smothers’ attorney, Michael Markowitz, told the judge, adding that Smothers would agree to a lifetime of home confinement with an ankle monitor.
The prosecutor, Chris Walpole, disagreed.
“Justice is not probation. Justice is a 25-to-life sentence,” he said. “We’ve not heard any hint of remorse. On the contrary, all we heard is denial.”
In sentencing Smothers to life, Kennedy said he considered probation but that Carter’s murder was so brutal that he felt prison was appropriate.
“This is a tragedy for both families,” Kennedy said. “Both families are ruined.”
The case against Smothers was built not only on DNA evidence, but also the word of a man named Calvin Featherson, who came forward to police after Carter’s death, alleging Smothers had solicited him for assistance in killing Carter.
Authorities believe Smothers was angry after Carter terminated their relationship. Carter’s children, who spoke at a September hearing, said he would call the house and harass them in weeks leading up to the murder.
But the court portrayals of Smothers were totally contrary to the man they knew, Smothers’ wife, sister, and son told Kennedy on Friday.
“He made sure his son knew what unconditional love was, no matter what,” Smothers’ son, Antonio Smothers, said in court. He said it was “very hard to believe” his father had harassed Carter’s family.
In the late 1980s, Sherill Smothers was involved in a car crash near Crockett, when he was struck by a drunken driver. The crash paralyzed him, and he successfully sued General Motors, receiving more than $6 million. Smothers’ sister, in a statement to the judge, said she resented the media’s focus on Smothers as a “millionaire” murder defendant.
“All these ‘millionaire,’ headlines, hmm, not so much,” she said, adding that Smothers’ attorney got at least half of the money. She later added, “I know my brother is not responsible for this.”
Smothers’ family also said he was in poor health and they feared prison would drastically worsen his condition. Markowitz said it would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to house Smothers.
Markowitz argued during the trial that Smothers was innocent and that the real killer was a Florida man who has since been convicted of child molestation. That man’s DNA was found under Carter’s fingernails, whereas Smothers’ DNA was found in an adjacent bathroom. Markowitz filed a failed new trial motion after Smothers was convicted.
“That’s the person who should be here,” Smothers said Friday. “Not me. Not me at all.”
After he completed his statement, Smothers was cross-examined by Walpole, who asked Smothers why he told Featherson to lie to police in 1983, in a conversation surreptitiously recorded by police. Smothers replied he was afraid he would be framed by Richmond police, who in 1983 were in the midst of a scandal involving a group of rogue officers alleged to be unfairly targeting African-Americans. They were known as the “cowboys.”
In the early 1980s, Smothers worked at the Oakland Tribune’s circulation department. He said he learned of the cowboys by reading articles by longtime Bay Area News Group reporter Harry Harris and became wary of police after that. Walpole pointed out that Smothers, by his own statements, willingly spoke to police, and questioned why he would tell Featherson to lie.