Murder trial opens
Smoot described as the aggressor Defense labels Alther ‘the architect of his own demise’
The opening day of a murder trial in Rappahannock County Circuit Court yesterday saw Commonwealth’s Attorney Art Goff paint a bloody picture of a violent altercation between two county men that proved fatal.
Flint Hill resident Randy Smoot, 48, was charged last October with aggravated malicious wounding after he allegedly assaulted Jonas “Jay” Alther on Oct. 19 with a heavy object, believed to be an industrial flashlight.
Hours later, after Alther succumbed to his injuries, Smoot was charged with first degree murder. Later the charge was amended to second-degree murder, which under Virginia code is punishable by not less than five nor more than 40 years in prison.
Goff told the jury that although Alther confronted Smoot, it was Smoot who was the aggressor, attacking Alther with his fists and the heavy object.
He walked the jury through the incident in detail, offering information gleaned from Rappahannock Sheriff Connie Compton’s interviews of Smoot, eyewitness Aaron Dodson, and the medical examiner, who determined that the cause of death was blunt trauma to the head caused when Alther fell and hit the back of his skull on his driveway pavement.
After Goff’s opening, Smoot’s attorney Joseph Pricone told the jury that some facts were not in dispute, but he described the situation as one of self-defense, that Alther initiated the confrontation and Smoot was afraid for his life. Pricone called Alther “the architect of his own demise.”
The trial is expected to last three days and the jury, which was empaneled yesterday morning, will hear from numerous witnesses, including Dodson, who will testify for the county, not the defense.
On the night of Oct. 19, the Rappahannock County Sheriff’s office responded to a call for a welfare check at Alther’s house, a tidy brick rambler just a few minutes’ drive from the town of Washington.
Sheriff Compton said Alther, 60, was discovered unconscious and sitting in a truck in the driveway of his home in the 200 block of Harris Hollow Road. A sheriff’s deputy who found the resident determined that he was suffering from severe head injuries and immediately alerted rescue personnel.
In the preliminary bond hearing, Rappahannock County Sheriff ’s Investigator James Jones played a recording of the call Smoot made to the RCSO following the assault.
In the recording, Smoot acknowledges having a “knock-down, drag-out” fight over the flashlight with Alther in the driveway of Alther’s home. Smoot then asks the sheriff’s office to send a deputy to check on Alther.
“I just want to make sure I didn’t hurt him,” Smoot says in the recording.
A Harris Hollow neighbor of Alther’s told the News at the time that Alther spent most nights at his elderly mother’s home, also near the town of Washington, and he would then return to his house during the day.
“He was a person who stayed to himself,” said the neighbor, whose home is not far from Alther’s residence.
Smoot was released on bail on Dec. 7. He was ordered to reside with his mother, refrain from using alcohol or illegal substances, and wear a continuous alcohol monitoring device, among the conditions of his release.
Smoot was indicted by a grand jury on Jan. 8.
On July 9, Smoot appeared in Circuit Court with his attorneys, Pricone and Mark Williams, who along with Goff submitted pre-trial motions to the court to determine what evidence could — or could not — be presented at trial.
Goff told the court that he wanted to introduce Smoot’s record of alcohol abuse and fighting during the trial.
“Alcohol use will be an integral part of [Smoot’s] defense,” said Goff, who also indicated he would introduce evidence that Smoot has been drinking the day of the incident.
Pricone objected, saying that he wanted to suppress Smoot’s record prior to the day of the event. Parker sustained Pricones’s motion.
Goff then argued his motion — to limit evidence regarding Alther’s “tendency toward violence.”
“We think the evidence will show that the incident was a simple assault,” said Goff.
Pricone, however, listed seven incidents between 2015 and 2017 in which Alther had threatened violence against someone, including neighbors, workers from Rappahannock Electric Coop on a service call on Alther’s road, and employees of the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Parker said he did not have enough information about the incidents to rule on the motion and agreed to leave the matter open until the first day of the trial.