Suspect in officers’ slayings held without bail
Police union official says death penalty necessary in case.
The death penalty is the only appropriate outcome for Quentin L. Smith, accused of killing two Westerville police officers, a spokesman for the local police union said after a Franklin County judge denied bail for Smith.
“You kill a cop, you get put to death,” a visibly angry Sgt. Brian Toth, of the county Sheriff ’s Office, said outside the courtroom Tuesday.
A trustee with the Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge No. 9, Toth was among about two dozen officers from Westerville and other law-enforcement agencies who attended the hearing in a show of support for the slain officers.
Smith, 30, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the Feb. 10 shooting deaths of Officers Eric Joering and Anthony Morelli, which could result in a death-penalty indictment when the case is presented to a county grand jury.
Prosecutor Ron O’Brien filed a motion Monday asking that Smith be held without bail, writing that a death-penalty indictment would make him ineligible for bail and calling him a danger to the community “who has no respect for the law or officers of the law.”
Municipal Court Judge Paul Herbert granted the prosecutor’s request during Smith’s initial court appearance. Sheryl Munson, an attorney with the county Public Defender’s Office, said she did not object to her client being held without bail.
Smith, who was injured in a gun battle with the officers and hospitalized until Sunday, appeared with his left hand heavily bandaged and his right arm hidden beneath his inmate clothing.
He did not speak or display any emotion during the hearing.
Columbus Police detective Gregory Sheppard told the judge that the officers were shot when they responded to a 911 hang-up call from a townhouse in the 300 block of Cross Wind Drive.
He said the officers entered the living room, where Smith’s wife told them that her husband had assaulted her and had a gun.
Smith “retrieved his handgun and raised it toward the officers,” who exchanged gunfire with him, Sheppard said.
Joering died at the scene; Morelli died of his injuries at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.
Smith was prohibited from having a gun because he is a felon convicted of burglary and domestic violence in 2009 in Cuyahoga County.
Gerald A. Lawson III, 30, of Warrensville Heights in Cuyahoga County, was charged last week in federal court with obtaining a Glock semiautomatic pistol for Smith in May and falsifying federal firearms transaction forms to buy it.