The Leader Thursday, January 10, 2013 ▪ vo l . 1 2 9 , n o. 8 ▪ T h e vo i c e o f Tipton County s i n c e 1 8 8 6 ▪
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Smith not guilty of fourth shooting Jury acquits 21-year-old after victim admits to lying on stand By ECHO DAY eday@covingtonleader.com
A Covington man on trial for his fourth attempted murder charge was acquitted Tuesday after the victim admitted he lied under oath. After a two-day jury trial, Davarius Datron “Nudy b” Smith, 21, was found not guilty of attempted second-degree murder, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony. The charges stem from the
Jan. 16, 2012 shooting of Aaron “Icy” Lewis at the intersection of Simonton and Hill streets in Covington. According to testimony, Lewis, Rob Jones, Deon Tipton and Charles Hall were in the parking lot of the former Hall store when Smith and two others drove by. Shots were fired, shattering the passenger windows of the Jeep Cherokee Smith was driving and injuring Lewis.
The details leading to the shooting were never fully clear during the trial, Lewis and Jones testifying Smith was “mugging” as he drove by. Mugging, explained Lewis and Jones, was the angry manner in which Smith was looking at them. “You could tell there was anger in his face, like he had hostility toward us,” Lewis testified. Smith and his passengers,
Ralph Alexander and Demarius Adams, testified Jones shot at them while they were turning on Hill Street. Detectives recovered 9 mm and .45 caliber shell casings from the scene and it appeared the two groups were shooting at one another, however it was never determined during the trial who was in possession of either weapon. As convicted felons, it is illegal for Smith, Jones and Lewis See SMith, page A3
the thin blue line Norm Jenks, the father of fallen trooper Calvin Jenks, pauses at his son's memorial Monday night during the Sea of Blue processional. The memorial honors the trooper who was killed during a traffic stop on Jan. 6, 2007. Photo by Echo Day
Crash kills mother, daughter By ECHO DAY eday@covingtonleader.com
Keeping the memory alive Sea of Blue honors fallen trooper By ECHO DAY eday@covingtonleader.com COTTON LAKE – Norm Jenks stole a few minutes to stand on the side of the road, in the very spot where his son lost his life six years ago, and pay tribute to the man remembered every January in Tipton County. “It’s real hard to come back here because this is where the tragedy occurred,” he said. “I stopped by here a couple of times in the earlier years, and it is just as hard now as it was then.” Jenks’ son Calvin was shot to death during a traffic stop on a lonely stretch of Hwy. 14 in the Cotton Lake community. Dashboard video from the trooper’s patrol car shows Jenks asked the driver of the vehicle, Orlando Garcia if drugs were
in the vehicle. After Garcia told Jenks about the marijuana in the center console, Jenks approached the vehicle and was shot by passenger Alejandro Gauna. Garcia pulled the trooper’s body from inside the vehicle and sped off, leaving him on the side of the dark highway. Minutes later, Jenks’ body was discovered by a hunter. The two, teenagers at the time of the killing, were in Tennessee to sell marijuana. Garcia and Gauna were convicted in the Jenks’
murder and each sentenced to life in prison. Both have also been convicted of federal drug trafficking. Each year a Sea of Blue memorial is held to remember the fallen trooper. “Trooper Jenks gave the ultimate sacrifice and we have to do what we have to do to keep this alive,” said Sheriff Pancho Chumley. “It puts everything back in perspective.” Chumley understands the pain of losing a loved one in the line of duty. His brother, Charles “Lanny” Bridges, a 25-year veteran of the Covington Police
Department, was killed while responding to a possible suicide call on Aug. 14, 1997. “There’s nothing we can say or do to bring him back,” Chumley said, “but we can keep the memory alive.” For Norm Jenks, it is difficult to return to the place where his son lost his life. This was the second year he’s attended. “The first couple of years they had it, it was just too hard for me,” he said. Through the tragedy, though, he has found solace in the way the community has reached out to his family. “I can’t tell you how much the people of Tipton County and this community mean to us. You take a look at what goes on in today’s society and I just want everybody to know the way the folks of Tipton County have reached out to us is just unheard of. There’s a lot of good that still goes on in this country that can reflect in a very positive way relevant to the murder of my son.”
INSIDE
A mother and daughter were killed Friday afternoon in a two-vehicle accident on Hwy. 51. According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Sherry Claffey and Shelly Harvey were both traveling northbound on the highway when Claffey’s 2012 Ford Explorer hit Harvey’s 1999 Toyota RAV4 in the right rear side. The Explorer ran off the right side of the roadway, coming to a stop in a grassy area near the Kent Clinic billboard. The RAV4 also ran off the right side of the roadway, hitting a utility pole and breaking it in half before overturning, killing both Harvey, 47, and her mother, Peggy Harvey, 70. The two women lived in Munford. The accident took place between Jack Bennett Road and the bridge over Indian Creek, near the Covington-Brighton border. Shelly Harvey was a sales associate at Walmart and her mother, Peggy, was retired from the department store. Funeral services took place on Wednesday, Jan. 9 and both were buried at Helen Crigger Cemetery. Claffey, 62, of Atoka, was injured in the accident. She was treated and released. All three women were wearing seatbelts. The initial report from the accident stated speed was not a factor in the wreck. No charges have yet been filed. The accidetn is still under investigation.
Burglar held at gunpoint by homeowner By ECHO DAY eday@covingtonleader.com QUITO – To Alfred Wilson, gun control might be defined as the restraint he exercised when he found a woman burglarizing his home last month. According to the Tipton County Sheriff’s rodriguez Office, on Dec. 19, 2012, Wilson returned to his Quito-Drummonds Road home just before noon, after having been hunting, and found an unfamiliar ve-
See burglar, page A3
making the grade
Read the latest in local high school hoops action. A9
Reader's Guide Opinion Obituaries Community Correspondents Sports
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Faith A10 Puzzles A12 Classifieds A13 Legals A14 Education A17
BMS names students of the month. A17
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