Cordele man convicted of attempted malice murder, eight counts of aggravated assault

James Lonnie Smith, age 44, of Cordele, was convicted Thursday, March 23, 2023, of Criminal Attempt to Commit Malice Murder, eight counts of Aggravated Assault on a Public Safety Officer, and two counts of Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony, in the Superior Court of Houston County. The guilty verdict was returned following a four-day jury trial, and Smith was sentenced Thursday afternoon by Houston Superior Court Judge Katherine Lumsden to serve one-hundred twenty (120) years in prison without the possibility of parole.

The evidence shown at trial established that in the early-morning hours of May 6, 2018, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation had tracked James Smith to the Scottish Inn & Suites motel on General Courtney Hodges Boulevard in Perry. Smith was wanted out of Crisp County on a murder warrant the GBI had obtained the day before alleging that Smith had shot and killed a woman in Cordele. The GBI reached out to the Houston County Sheriff’s Office for assistance in obtaining a search warrant for Scottish Inn room number 217, where Smith was believed to be located.

Once the warrant was obtained, members of Houston County’s specialized Sheriff’s Response Team (SRT) unit convened in Perry to plan the apprehension of Smith. A highly-trained unit composed mostly of Houston County Deputies and often called in to make high-risk arrests, the SRT members involved in this particular operation included SRT Commander Captain Mike Stokes, then-Sgt. James Spivey (who served as the entry team leader), then-Sgt. Quridsha Gilliam of the Perry Police Department, Deputy Henry Lawrence, Deputy Curtis Hoskins, Sgt. Doug Blackmon, then-Sgt. Dennis Marshall, Cpl. Andrew Gunn, and Sgt. James Middlebrooks.

Shortly after 4:00AM, the SRT approached the second-floor motel room on foot in what is known as a “stack formation,” with each SRT member lined up one after another behind a point man carrying a ballistics shield. The team attempted to gain entry to room 217 with an electronic key card they had been provided by the motel office staff. After three attempts at using the key card failed to unlock the door, Sgt. Spivey, who was holding the point position, gave the order for a breaching device to be used on the door, and began to loudly declare “Sheriffs Office! Search Warrant!”

After announcing their presence, and after the first swing of the breaching device, gunshots rang out from inside room 217, with bullets traveling through the room’s window and toward the stack of SRT members. Sgt. Spivey briefly returned fire toward the room while the stack of officers backed up down a narrow corridor and took cover in an outdoor stairwell. Smith continued to shoot at the officers as they retreated, and twice struck the ballistics shield held by Sgt. Spivey, embedding 9mm projectiles into the shield’s Kevlar layer. These close range shots directly at Sgt. Spivey were the basis for Smith’s Criminal Attempt to Commit Malice Murder conviction.

After regrouping and surrounding possible exit points, Cpl. Gunn and Sgt. Middlebrooks took cover behind an industrial-size clothes dryer in the Scottish Inn parking lot, from where Cpl. Gunn launched three rounds of nonlethal chemical munitions (similar to tear gas) into room 217 and Sgt. Middlebrooks provided cover fire. Both officers continued to face gunshots by Smith aimed in their direction until the final chemical munition round had been delivered, ultimately causing Smith to come out of the room with his hands up. Sgt. Spivey and Dep. Hoskins were able to take Smith into custody at that time.

A subsequent search of the room during the GBI’s investigation into Smith’s attempted shooting of the SRT members revealed that Smith had basically barricaded himself in the room and waited for a gunfight with law enforcement, setting himself up to sleep in a corner by the window where he could see if anyone came to the door. Under the window, a table held two 9mm pistols, and bags of extra ammunition and magazines were found throughout the room. The GBI’s search revealed twenty-two spent 9mm shell casings in the room, indicating that Smith had fired upon the officers at least twenty-two times.

The jury returned its verdict finding Smith guilty after just under ninety minutes of deliberation. During the subsequent sentencing hearing, the State provided evidence of four prior felony convictions on Smith’s criminal record, including a rape conviction out of Crisp County in 1998 and an Aggravated Assault conviction out of Crisp County in 2012. Due to his prior record, Judge Lumsden punished Smith as a recidivist, meaning that he will not be eligible for parole at any point during the 120 years that his prison sentence runs.

Smith was prosecuted by the Houston Judicial Circuit’s Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney, Greg Winters, and Chief Assistant District Attorney Eric Z. Edwards. Smith was represented by members of Georgia’s Capitol Defender’s Office. Smith still has murder charges pending trial in Crisp County for the events of May 5, 2018, and the State of Georgia has filed notice of their intention to seek the death penalty against Smith in those proceedings.

COMMENTS FROM DEPUTY CHIEF ADA WINTERS: “Every day, law enforcement officers put their lives on the line protecting the citizens of Houston County. Sometimes those officers go into especially high-risk situations that they are not sure they will walk out of. The members of the Houston County SRT, in the early morning hours of May 6, 2018, faced such a situation. Because of their exceptional skill, training, and bravery, they were able to accomplish the mission and take an extremely dangerous, violent, wanted offender off the streets. I am thankful—and believe we should all be thankful—for the work they do each and every day.”

COMMENTS FROM CHIEF ADA EDWARDS: “High risk arrest targets demand highly trained specialty law enforcement groups, and we are lucky to have such a group operating right here in Houston County. James Smith has proven himself, at all points in his adult life, to be a highly dangerous individual unfit for our society, and he proved that again on May 6, 2018, when he barricaded himself in for a standoff with law enforcement rather than surrendering on his open murder warrant. It is only by a combination of the grace of God and the incredible capability and professionalism of our county’s SRT members that no one was hurt that morning at the Scottish Inn, and I could not be more thankful for the work these real-life heroes in our community did to keep us all safe from a truly evil man with an abandoned and malignant heart.”

COMMENTS FROM DISTRICT ATTORNEY KENDALL: “Sadly, for some, the comments, criticism and perception of law enforcement don’t account for what the majority know to be true—that the vast majority of law enforcement, especially in Houston County, are exceptional people doing exceptional work, in extremely dangerous situations. I am grateful for the hard work by my office, the GBI and officers involved. I am also grateful that the jury returned a verdict that demonstrates the truth and that Judge Lumsden passed down a sentence that will keep this heinous individual out of society. It is nothing short of a miracle coupled with good training and leadership that no one was injured or killed. I think much of it can be attributed to the dedication of the members of the SRT and the leadership of Capt. Stokes. Lastly, I hope that the would-be violent individuals out there take note, if you come to Houston County to do harm to others, especially our law enforcement, children or elderly, you’re going to find yourself on the bus to prison.”

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