Lawmaker accused of firing 20 rounds into ex-wife's car gets 10 months
A Michigan state senator accused of pointing an AR-15 at his ex-wife during an argument last year and then firing 20 rounds at her Mercedes Benz as she fled has taken a plea and been sentenced to 10 months behind bars.
It hasn’t been determined by the court whether Sen. Virgil Smith, 36, will be required to give up his legislative seat as a condition of his guilty plea to malicious destruction of property worth more than $20,000, the Detroit News reports. His sentence in the felony case also includes five years of probation.
A felony firearm charge was dismissed, which Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said is unusual for her office. But in a written statement provided after an earlier hearing she said, after extensive review of Smith’s medical and psychiatric records, that extenuating circumstances justified the plea deal, .
They included a history of bipolar depression and a neurocognitive disorder caused by a traumatic brain injury in an auto accident less than two years ago. Smith also is under treatment for alcohol dependency, Worthy said. . “He’s being held accountable,” attorney Godfrey Dillard, who is representing Smith, told the newspaper. “His political career is destroyed.”
