Glasgow Man Sentenced For Unlawful Possession Of A Firearm By A Felon

Convicted Felon Shot Off-Duty Policer Officer With a Sawed-off Shotgun

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that Nickey Don Smith, II, 39, of Glasgow, West Virginia was sentenced today to eight years in prison and three years of supervised release following a 2012 guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm.  In December of 2011, Nickey Don Smith shot Glasgow police officer Steven Smith with a sawed-off shotgun at close range.  Officer Smith, unrelated to Nickey Don Smith, and another Glasgow police officer had gone to Nickey Don Smith’s Glass Fire home in response to a 911 call made by Nickey Don Smith.  After the officers arrived at the home, they announced “Police Department” twice, while they were making their way up the stairs to the porch.  As Officer Smith approached the door, Nickey Don Smith shot him with a sawed off Central Arms 12 gauge shotgun.  The shotgun blast struck Officer Smith in the arm, shoulder and the side of his chest, causing serious, permanent and life-threatening injuries and requiring multiple surgeries to repair the damage.

Nickey Don Smith was indicted by a federal grand jury in February of 2012 on two counts of felon in possession of a firearm.  He pleaded guilty in June of 2012, and has been awaiting the outcome of psychological testing to determine his competency prior to sentencing.  The Honorable John T. Copenhaver, Jr., United States District Court Judge, presided over the sentencing hearing today and issued a 16-page memorandum opinion regarding Nickey Don Smith’s competency.  After a comprehensive review of the facts of the case and the reports from three psychologists, the Court concluded that Nickey Don Smith’s “mental disease or defect of his condition – properly diagnosed as Personality Disorder NOS with paranoid, narcissistic and anti-social factors – was not so severe as to render him unable to appreciate the nature and quality or the wrongfulness of his act of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon or his act of maliciously wounding Officer Smith at the time of the commission those acts.”