Edgewood resident Sean Nelson Smith faces up to 50 years in prison after a Harford County jury convicted him late Wednesday night of second-degree murder in the shooting death of a community activist?s son.
After more than nine hours of deliberation, the jury returned to acquit Smith of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the Aug. 11 shooting of Samuel Horne, 25. Smith was found guilty on a lesser charge of second-degree murder, meaning that he may have acted without premeditation or intent to kill, but was not acting in self-defense, as Assistant Public Defender John Janowich had argued this week.
Horne?s mother, anti-violence activist Mildred Samy, had wept quietly throughout closing arguments Wednesday and kept vigil on the hard, modern benches outside the historic Bel Air courtroom over five days while the trial took place. At 11:15 p.m., less than an hour before what would have been her youngest son?s 26th birthday, the jury returned with its conviction.
“I hope the jury gives my son the birthday present he will never hear ? Sean Nelson Smith, guilty as charged,” she told The Examiner this week. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Throughout the trial, Smith?s alleged crimes seemed to take a back seat to Horne?s, as Janowich argued that Horne had made threats against Smith, had allegedly shot and paralyzed one of Smith?s friends a year before, and was yelling at Smith and reaching behind his back ? as if reaching for a gun ? in the moments before Smith shot him.
But prosecutors painted a different picture, where Smith ignored the chance to avoid confrontation, choosing instead to face down Horne and shoot the unarmed man.
“This was a willful, deliberate … act,” said Deputy State?s Attorney H. Scott Lewis. “No one made him go out there.”
Smith is scheduled for sentencing on March 6 at 2 p.m. He faces up to 30 years in prison for second-degree murder and 5 to 20 years for using a handgun in the commission of a violent crime.
