Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Smith's death not linked to truck crash
Toxicology tests will be conducted on Randall Lee Smith, and results might not be ready for weeks.
Jared Soares | The Roanoke Times
The Ford pickup truck Randall Lee Smith allegedly stole from one of two shooting victims is parked Thursday at a garage in Pearisburg.
The injuries Randall Lee Smith suffered last week when he crashed a pickup truck belonging to one of the men he was accused of shooting are likely not what killed him, an investigator said.
It could be weeks, though, before it becomes clear what did cause him to die just a day after he was released from a hospital.
Smith was found unresponsive in his cell in the medical unit at the New River Valley Regional Jail in Dublin about 5 p.m. Saturday.
Jail Superintendent Gerald McPeak said jail staff and emergency medical workers "worked tirelessly for over 40 minutes" administering first aid and CPR before the Pearisburg man was taken to Pulaski Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Smith pleaded guilty in 1982 to killing two hikers on the Appalachian Trail in Giles County a year earlier and served 15 years in prison.
He was accused of shooting two fishermen the evening of May 6 at their campsite, not far from the site of the murders that took place 27 years earlier to the month. The men have both been released from the hospital.
Randall Lee Smith was suspected of shooting two fishermen near Dismal Creek.
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Family members said Sean Farmer and Scott Johnston were shot with a .22-caliber pistol, the same type of gun used to kill Robert Mountford Jr. in 1981. Susan Ramsay was beaten and stabbed to death.
Johnston and Farmer reportedly identified Smith as the shooter that night after seeing his picture on a "missing" poster, and Smith was captured after overturning Johnston's truck off of Sugar Run Road near Eggleston.
The lead investigator in the case, Lt. Ron Hamlin of the Giles County Sheriff's Office, said ballistics tests may be able to determine whether the gun found with Smith was the same gun used to fire the bullets that struck Farmer and Johnston.
But because no evidence from the 1981 killings is known to exist, investigators won't be able to determine if the same gun was used to kill Mountford, he said.
Smith had been hospitalized since May 6 at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. For about a day and a half, he was on a ventilator. He was released Friday.
From Roanoke Memorial, Smith was taken to the Roanoke Police Department, where he went before a magistrate and was ordered held without bond. Because of Smith's injuries, he stayed in the back seat of a police car and a magistrate came to him for a hearing.
Smith was then taken to the Giles County Sheriff's Office for questioning.
Hamlin said Smith was more talkative than he expected, though Hamlin won't say if Smith confessed to the shootings. They talked for about 20 minutes, Hamlin said.
Smith told him the water and the electricity at his home outside Pearisburg had been cut off for nonpayment. Smith's inheritance had run out and he had no way to pay the bills, so he took his dog and moved into the woods in early March, Hamlin said.
Smith's campsite has not been found, and investigators continue to search the woods near Dismal Creek, Hamlin said.
In photos and video taken as Smith was released from Roanoke Memorial, Smith appeared frail and far older than his 54 years. His condition led neighbors to wonder if he was released from the hospital too early.
Privacy laws prevent Carilion spokesman Eric Earnhart from talking about a specific patient. In general, he said, patients are released when the physician managing their care determines that they no longer need to be in an acute care hospital and can be safely discharged to another level of care.
The standards or protocol for a patient's release are no different if the patient is in police custody, Earnhart said.
However, the level of care that patient is likely to receive -- at a jail medical ward, a nursing home or the patient's own home, for example -- is considered in each case, he said.
McPeak said he does not have the expertise to determine whether Smith should have been released from the hospital. The jail is bound by law to accept inmates who have been committed, he said.
McPeak said Smith was committed to the jail at 7:55 p.m. Friday.
Every inmate receives a preliminary medical screening, during which correctional staff members ask questions, he said. Based on the inmate's answers to the questions and his or her physical and mental condition at the time, the inmate is either housed in the general population or, if immediate medical attention is needed, taken to the medical unit.
"Obviously, based on his condition," McPeak said, "Smith was immediately taken to medical when his committal process was completed."
Inmates are kept in the medical unit if they have health conditions that are chronic or contagious or if they need frequent care from nursing staff for an injury or illness, he said. Each cell in the medical unit houses only one person.
The doctor employed by the jail gave nursing staff instructions on what care Smith should receive, McPeak said, and nursing staff members and correctional officers periodically checked on him.
Smith was receiving medication that was prescribed to him by both the doctors he saw in Roanoke and the jail physician, McPeak said. He said Smith was given medication in the early afternoon and briefly interacted with staff members.
The medication made Smith sleep a lot, McPeak said.
"He appeared to be resting in his cell until a correctional officer could not get him to respond to their requests at around 5 p.m.," he said.
It is unknown when he was last seen awake, McPeak said, because not every interaction with inmates is documented.
Smith's body was taken to the Roanoke medical examiner's office, where an autopsy was performed Monday, Hamlin said. He said a medical examiner was unable to determine Smith's cause of death. Toxicology tests will be conducted, and it could take weeks for the results to be returned, he said.
In the meantime, Hamlin said, investigators will continue to look into the shootings and will keep searching for the spot where Smith stayed.
During their interview, Smith talked openly about some things but seemed to forget others, Hamlin said.
He said Smith had agreed to talk with him again after he was appointed a lawyer.
But, he said, Smith told him "there wasn't nothing else for him to do but die."
"I've talked to a lot of people, and this man had given up on life."
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