CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County jury will resume deliberations Thursday morning in the execution-style shooting deaths of four family members.
The 12-member panel deliberated the fate Gavin Smith for approximately two and a half hours Wednesday before breaking for the evening.
Smith, 18, killed his mother, step-father and two younger brothers in their Elkview area home on Dec. 9, 2020. He faces the rest of his life in prison if convicted of murder.
Defense attorney John Sullivan told the jury during closing arguments that Smith was acting out because he was mistreated by his parents.
“Gavin shot his family. He killed all four of the people in his household and so the question only is of intent,” Sullivan said in his closing argument.
Sullivan told the jury Smith didn’t act with malice.
Kanawha County Chief Assistance Prosecutor Don Morris countered. He told the jury Sullivan didn’t’ give them the full definition of malice.
“Malice is a cruel act toward another,” Morris said. “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, ask yourself is it a cruel act to put a gun toward your own mother’s head and blow her brains out while she’s sleeping? Is it a cruel act to put a gun against your stepfather’s head who had a cpap mask on and is sleeping and put a bullet through his brain? Is it a cruel act to put a bullet through the back of your 12-year-old brother’s head? Is it a cruel act to murder your 3-year-old baby brother?”
The jury could find Smith not guilty of all charges or guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.
Smith did not testify in his own defense.
The bodies of Risa Mae Saunders, 39, his stepfather Daniel Dale Long, 37, and his brothers Gage Ripley, 12, and Jameson Long, 3, all died in their Cemetery Road home. They were shot on Dec. 9, 2020, their bodies were found on Dec. 13.
The state rested its case Wednesday morning after calling its final witness, state Medical Examiner Dr. Allen Mock, to the witness stand. Mock described to the jury how each family member died. He said they all were shot in the head on Dec. 9, 2020.
“She was shot in the back of the head with at a close range by an assailant and that’s a homicide,” Mock said regarding Smith’s mother.
Mock said there’s “no way” either victim could’ve survived.
“When I say ‘no possible way,’ these are injuries that even if they occurred in the hospital, the chances of living a meaningful life afterwards is nearly zero,” he said.
During cross examination, defense attorney John Sullivan asked Mock about Risa Saunders and Daniel Long’s underlying health conditions. Mock said they were overweight and had heart problems.
“He was quite ill from a cardiovascular standpoint,” Mock said of Long. “He was six feet tall weighing over 400 pounds.”
The state also called Brian Clemmons, a former DNA analyst for the State Police Forensic Lab, and Kent Cochran, a firearm and tool mark examiner with State Police.
Defense attorneys called their first witness late Wednesday morning. Deputy K.A. Cooper with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office testified Smith had run away from home before the murders and that his step-father reported it to police. Smith was later found at his great-grandfather’s home.
“There was an extensive history there for the amount of runaways,” Cooper said.
Smith, who was 16 at the time of the shootings, told deputies that he was “overwhelmed” because he was home-schooled and his parents made him take care of his young brother, who was 2 years old at the time, Cooper testified.
Cooper said Smith also mentioned his parents kept padlocks on the inside back door and refrigerator; however, Smith did not say whether or not he was being abused at home.
On Tuesday, Smith’s ex-girlfriend Rebecca Walker, 19, testified Smith’s parents did not allow them to be together, so she encouraged him on a video call to kill his family. Walker is currently serving a 10-year prison term for hiding Smith from the police after the murders.
MetroNews reporter Carrie Hodousek contributed to this story.