A judge sentenced former correctional officer Dameon Woods to 20 years in prison Tuesday for the brutal beating to death of inmate Raymond Smoot in Baltimore?s Central Booking facility in 2005.
“We will probably never know exactly what happened,” Baltimore City Circuit Judge John Glynn said of May 14, 2005, when Smoot, 51, was beaten to death by jail guards.
Glynn said sentencing was difficult because Woods has been a model citizen and guard.
But Glynn said he needed to balance Woods? reputation with the second-degree murder charge a jury convicted him of in October, which carries a maximum penalty of 30 years.
Neither Smoot?s family nor Woods? attorney said they were happy with the judge?s decision.
Woods should have been punished more severely, said Smoot?s brother, James, and niece, Delvonna, outside the courthouse.
“He should have gotten the whole amount,” James Smoot said.
But several Central Booking guards testified that Woods is a good, even-tempered man, and Woods? older brother, Gregory, implored the judge to be lenient in his brother?s case.
“My family?s heart goes out to the Smoot family, but it?s not us against them,” Gregory Woods said, adding that his brother always has maintained he did not harm Smoot.
“In my 16 years of practice, I have never stood next to a defendant who I believed was as innocent as I do with Mr. Woods,” said Woods? attorney, Margaret Mead.
She said other officers beat Smoot to death and made her client a scapegoat.
But Smoot?s sister, Diana, said the hurt of her brother?s killing lives on.
“He intentionally and willfully pulled him off the bottom bunk and started stomping him,” Diana Smoot said. “This traumatic event has caused our family a lot of emotional pain. … I don?t think he should ever be on the streets again.”
Smoot?s death highlighted overcrowded conditions at Central Booking, which was built to process up to 45,000 people annually, but has been used to process more than double that number.
