After inmate Raymond Smoot was brutally stomped to death at Baltimore?s Central Booking facility in 2005, several witnesses said they saw correctional officer Dameon Woods walking around the jail shouting: “That?s what happens when you [mess] with an officer.”
On Thursday, it was Smoot?s family?s turn to shout.
“That?s what happens when you [mess] with a Smoot,” several of the deceased inmate?s emotional family members yelled outside Baltimore?s Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse, where Woods was convicted of second-degree depraved-heart murder.
Despite the outburst by his relatives, Smoot?s older brother James said he does not feel closure from the jury?s conviction of Woods.
“There was eight of them that stopped him. [Authorities] only got one,” James Smoot said.
A Baltimore City Circuit Court jury reached the conviction of Woods in the May 14, 2005, beating death of Smoot, 51, at the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center. But the jury acquitted former correctional officer James Hatcher, who was also charged in Smoot?s death.
Earlier in the trial, Judge John Glynn acquitted a third correctional officer, Nathan Colbert, of charges related to Smoot?s death, citing a lack of evidence.
“This was a very, very difficult trial, and we worked very, very hard,” jury forewoman Elizabeth Lapierre said. “None of us slept. We looked at every piece of evidence we had and we made the decision we thought was right.”
Outside the courthouse, an exonerated Hatcher said the trial was a “heartbreaking” experience.
“My heart goes out to the Smoot family,” he said.
But Margaret Mead, Woods? attorney, said Woods and his family are “devastated” by the decision because he did not touch Smoot that night.
Mead said other officers beat Smoot to death and made her client a scapegoat.
“I?m extremely upset and disappointed that this jury did not render the appropriate verdict in this case,” she said. “This verdict says that no correctional officer can put a hand on an inmate. It gives inmates carte blanche.”
Outside the courthouse, Baltimore City State?s Attorney Patricia Jessamy said the decision emphasized the importance of keeping inmates safe.
“It highlights the challenges we all face in our attempt to bring justice to the citizens of Baltimore City,” she said. “We must ensure that our prisons are safe.”
Woods faces up to 30 years in prison. He will be sentenced Dec. 12.
