William F. Smithson’s quest for a new murder trial received a boost last week when a Delaware County judge agreed to appoint a new attorney for him.
Smithson, a gay man convicted for the 2006 murder of his coworker Jason Shephard, is seeking a new trial on the grounds that his trial attorney, G. Guy Smith, was ineffective.
Last November, Smithson filed a pro-se petition for a new trial.
But four months later, his court-appointed attorney, Stephen D. Molineux, stated publicly that Smithson’s petition has no merit.
During a brief court proceeding Aug. 2, Common Pleas Judge Barry C. Dozor agreed with Smithson that Molineux should be dismissed as his attorney.
Molineux had no comment for this story.
Dozor said an evidentiary hearing needs to be held to determine if Smithson’s petition for a new trial has any merit.
He said Smithson’s new attorney will help him prepare for the hearing.
But Dozor warned Smithson that he’s not entitled to an unlimited number of court-appointed attorneys.
Dozor also expressed hope that Smithson’s next attorney — who has yet to be named — will have a better working relationship with Smithson.
Smithson retained the right to act as his own counsel if he’s dissatisfied with his next attorney.
In November 2008, Smithson was convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
According to the prosecution, Smithson lured Shephard into his home in September 2006, slipped him the “date-rape” drug gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), then strangled him to death in the course of trying to rape him.
In a prior interview, Smithson scoffed at the scenario as “absurd.” He said any drugs he shared with Shephard — and any sex the two men had together — were consensual.
In his petition for a new trial, Smithson contends that his sixth-amendment right to confront witnesses was repeatedly violated during his trial.
He said important witnesses weren’t subjected to cross-examination, including a man who was in Smithson’s house when Shephard died, a serologist and toxicologist whose findings contributed to the belief that Shephard had GHB in his system when he died, and Smithson’s niece.
Instead, others testified on their behalf or read statements to jurors that purportedly were made by the witnesses, Smithson maintains.
In his petition, he notes that the right to confront witnesses dates back to the ancient days of Rome.
Smithson said Shephard was bisexual, though his family from Shephard’s hometown of Cavalier, N.D., probably wouldn’t have known of his orientation.
He said Shephard willingly came to his home on Sept. 18, 2006, partly for the purpose of having sex — which the two men had also engaged in the day before, according to Smithson.
But Smithson said he had been tired that day, and the combination of drugs and alcohol caught up with him. He fell asleep before any sex took place between them, he claimed.
“The last thing I remember was Jason elbowing me and saying, ‘You’re passing out,’” Smithson stated.
He said that when he woke up later that day, he discovered Shephard lying dead in his bedroom.
Two days after his death, Shephard’s body was discovered by police in Smithson’s basement, and Smithson was charged with a variety of offenses, including murder, kidnapping, administering intoxicants and abuse of a corpse.
In his petition, Smithson refers to another man in the house, F. Bruce Covington, as a “prime suspect” in the murder.
However, Covington was never called as a witness during Smithson’s trial.
In January 2009, Smithson was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
He said he’s optimistic about his chances for a new trial.
“There is still a long way to go with no guarantees,” he said. “However, the evidentiary hearing keeps hope alive. As difficult as it’s been to remain positive in this prison atmosphere, I must fight on for the sake of the truth.”
Prosecutor William R. Toal 3rd said he welcomed an evidentiary hearing.
“I think it will make it clear that Mr. Smith did a good job representing his client, Mr. Smithson,” Toal told PGN. “There is no merit to Mr. Smithson’s allegation of ineffective assistance of counsel.”
Smithson also maintains that prosecutors prejudiced jurors against him by emphasizing aspects of his sexual orientation in a lurid and sensationalized way.
“I was portrayed as a monster,” Smithson said. “The jurors were shown sex toys and sex aids [from] my house, as if they had something to do with Jason’s death.”
Toal disputed that criticism.
“I think he got a fair trial,” Toal said. “The sexual-orientation aspects were facts that made up the circumstances of the case. They were not the core of the case. And they were not the reason why the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The jury found him guilty of first-degree murder because the evidence established that that was the proper verdict.”
Outside the courtroom, Smith — the former attorney of Smithson — said he fully supports Smithson’s quest for a new trial.
“I spent two years of my life living this case, and I know Bill Smithson never intended to harm Jason Shephard at any time,” Smith told PGN. “I will never, ever believe that Bill Smithson intended to kill Jason Shephard. I don’t know how Jason Shephard died. But I do know that Bill Smithson didn’t get a fair trial.”
Smith also criticized the prosecution for seeking the death penalty for Smithson in 2006.
Jurors who support the death penalty also tend to be more conservative on same-sex issues, he noted.
“We had a death-qualified jury that was vulnerable to the homophobia put forth by the prosecution,” Smith said.
Smithson, 47, remains incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution in Huntingdon.