A 17-year-old boy pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in an attempted robbery that led to a killing at an unsanctioned pot shop in Colorado Springs.
The plea deal by Joshua Isaiah Daugherty is poised to avert a trial on first-degree murder, and it ignited passionate displays in court among family members on both sides.
“I reject this plea agreement!” Barbara Jones, mother of 24-year-old victim Conte Smith-El, repeated in a conference call heard in court. “He was my only son.”
The proposed penalty — five to seven years in the Youthful Offender System in Pueblo — doesn’t reflect the gravity of the crime and is unlikely to effect the necessary change in Daugherty to count as justice, Jones argued in asking the judge to tear up the agreement, making points echoed by Smith-El’s sister and uncle.
Even as she railed against the deal, relatives of Daugherty stormed in and out of court, hurling obscenities as they complained that he was being treated too harshly after having been taken advantage of by an adult co-defendant.
Fourth Judicial District Judge G. David Miller accepted the guilty plea, contingent on Daugherty’s cooperation with prosecutors in the case against the other suspect, accused shooter Deddrick “Houston” Hill. The judge said the agreement was in line with sentences offered in similar cases, and he trusted the judgment of attorneys on both sides.
Miller will decide in an April 5 hearing how long the boy will be incarcerated. The judge warned Daugherty that he could spend 30 years in adult prison if he causes trouble in his incarceration, what the judge described as a “hammer” in framing the agreement.
“You have to toe the line if you get to YOS. Do you understand that?” Miller asked him.
“Yes, sir,” went the boy’s soft-spoken reply.
A photo of Conte Smith-El hangs on the door of the shop where he was killed after it was decorated for a candlelight vigil on Friday, Nov. 3, 2017. Smith-El was killed at a business on East Platte avenue on Monday night, Oct. 30.
Smith-El was slain Oct. 30 in a storefront in the 2200 block of East Platte Avenue that posed as a consignment store but actually was an underground marijuana shop.
He was the sole employee at work when he was tied up, beaten and ultimately shot seven times with a semiautomatic rifle as he begged for his life, a crime captured on surveillance footage.
Although Hill is accused of pulling the trigger, authorities say the slaying wouldn’t have happened without Daugherty, who they say posed as a customer and, after gaining entry, pretended to be a fellow victim.
But after Daugherty lay down on the floor as if he were being robbed, the video shows him jump back up and help Hill tie up Smith-El.
The same footage shows the fateful moment when Smith-El tried to fight back, knocking Hill to the floor. Smith-El was bolting for the exit when Hill opened fire, authorities said.
The plea deal calls for Daugherty to take the stand and testify truthfully at Hill’s first-degree murder trial, scheduled for March 18.
After making a scene, the boy’s mother, Daniella Daugherty, told the court she supported her son’s guilty plea, saying it was his decision to make.
In entering the guilty plea on her client’s behalf, public defender Rose Roy said her client maintains that he wasn’t aware Hill intended to commit a crime and was forced to participate.
Roy said the boy decided to plead guilty strictly to avoid the prospect of a life in prison if he were convicted at trial.
Hill’s trial date was scheduled after the judge ruled that he was competent to stand trial, adopting the view of state psychiatrists who examined him at the defense’s request.
