Oklahoma County prosecutors filed the charges April 8 against Kyle Alexander Smith (left), 17. Smith is also charged with conspiracy to commit arson, arson and cruelty to an animal. Smith is alleged to have killed the family dog with the machete.
District Attorney David Prater said April 8 it’s “highly unlikely” he will seek the death penalty against Smith because of his age at the time of the crime. Smith — born March 24, 1994 — was two days shy of his 17th birthday when the grandparents were killed on March 22.
“If he was truly 16 at the time, he can’t be executed according to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Prater said.
Six years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in a narrow 5-4 vote that the death penalty for offenders under 18 is prohibited. If convicted of the murder charge, Smith could face life in prison without the possibility parole or life in prison.
Two of Smith’s friends — Dustin August Martin (top), 18, and Jacob Isaiah Leblanc (bottom), 17 — have also been charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson and cruelty to an animal in connection with the double homicide. Prosecutors allege Smith called both of the teenagers to help him destroy the crime scene evidence, including the bodies of David Garrick, 60, and his wife Rose Garrick, 57, and burn the grandparents’ Midwest City home.
Martin and Leblanc told Midwest City homicide detectives the three teens sat in the grandparents’ living room and smoked marijuana before setting the bodies and house on fire with gasoline purchased with Rose Garrick’s credit card.
Smith reportedly told friend Jonathan Siders that he struck Rose Garrick “12 to 13 times” with the machete, according to a police affidavit. Detective Wade Ramsey wrote in the affidavit that he saw “pooling of blood” around both victims and “it appeared the male victim had defense wounds to his right hand.”
AFFADAVIT
According to the affidavit, Siders told police Smith showed him a video of the murder scene and that he could hear Smith talking as he moved the camera around. At one point, the video showed the end of a machete poking at the eyes of a body Siders believed to be Rose Garrick, Ramsey wrote in the affidavit.
Smith, who had taken the couple’s white GMC pickup, was arrested in Chickasha on March 23 and booked into the Oklahoma County Jail.
Martin told police when he arrived at the house, located at 3416 Pleasant Drive, he saw the dead bodies; one in the kitchen and the other in the hallway, according to a separate police affidavit. Martin told police both victims had head trauma “and there was blood everywhere.”
Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said investigators have not discovered the motive behind the killings.
“Until we’re able to talk to him, we really won’t know,” he said. “We’ve been told by independent sources that his grandmother had restricted his use of a car over spring break because he didn’t do his homework. We have no idea if that caused him to kill them, but we know there was tension in the home.”
During a search of the house, investigators recovered 50 pieces of evidence including a demonic drawing found in one of the bedrooms, according to a search warrant return filed by Midwest City police.
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