CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Both defense attorneys and prosecutors told a Kanawha County circuit judge Tuesday they will be ready to go forward with the retrail of an Elkview area man arrested in December 2020 after the shooting deaths of four family members.
Gavin Smith, now 22, was 16 when he was charged with killing his mother, stepfather and two younger brothers. All four victims had been shot to death.
A jury convicted Smith in a 2022 on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to three life sentences plus 40 years.
The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial in a order handed down last year citing an error in the first trial connected to instructions given to the jury by Kanawha County Circuit Judge Kenneth Ballard.
Ballard conducted a brief pretrial hearing Tuesday with both sides telling him they’d be ready to go to trial beginning June 22.
Ballard said 75 potential jurors would be called in to begin jury selection.
If Smith is convicted, he’ll have a chance for parole after 15 years because the crimes were committed when he was a juvenile.
Smith has remained in the South Central Regional Jail.