The Columbia man, accused in Howard County?s only murder charge of 2006, said he acted in “self-defense.”
Mike Dean Jackson Jr., 28, told police investigators that he shot Anthony James Owens Smith, 20, of Savage, because Smith and his friends had “come into his neighborhood to beat up” Jackson and his brother, police charging documents state.
Howard County District Court Judge Pamila Brown set a $500,000 full bond for Jackson on Monday, meaning he will have to pay the entire amount to be released from jail.
Police statistics show Smith?s death to be the second Howard County homicide of 2006, but his death was the county?s first murder charge of the year, said T. Wayne Kirwan, spokesman for the Howard County State?s Attorney?s Office.
A homicide is a term police use to classify the willful killing of one human being by another. In order for a homicide to be classified as a murder, prosecutors must prove to a judge or jury that a murder occurred in a court of law.
The county had four homicides in 2005 and one in 2004. Only the 2004 homicide has been proven a murder in court.
On Friday at 11:29 p.m., Howard County police were called to the 8900 block of Early April Way in the neighborhood of Huntington in Columbia for a report of a shooting. The officers found Smith on the ground with “multiple gunshot wounds,” charging documents state. Smith was transported to Howard County General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
A witness told police two subjects left the area just after the shooting, one carrying a handgun. The officers found Jackson, who told police he shot Smith after an “altercation” that started earlier in the day, according to charging documents.
Police have charged Jackson with first-degree murder in Smith?s death.
Jackson is incarcerated at the Howard County Detention Center.
