Jury hears deputy not told man was armed

CLARKSVILLE — Johnson County Sheriff’s Office deputies weren’t told Fred Kauffeld was armed when they went looking for him in the dark early-morning hours of May 15, 2015.

Less than an hour later, Reserve Deputy Sonny Smith was dead from a .22-caliber bullet that entered his collar bone area, ricocheted off a rib and went through his lung, causing the 42-year-old father of four to bleed to death on a rural Johnson County road.

Kauffeld, 52, is accused of shooting Smith and went on trial Tuesday before a jury of six men and six women.

He’s charged with two counts of capital murder, two counts of attempted capital murder because a two-person police dog team was in the line of fire, and one count of burglary.

It was the latter offense that took Smith and other sheriff’s deputies to Johnson County 1723.

One capital murder count, Prosecutor David Gibbons told jurors in the state’s opening statement, accuses Kauffeld of killing a law enforcement officer working in line of duty.

The second count accuses Kauffeld of killing Smith in the immediate flight from a burglary under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.

Gibbons told jurors Smith and Deputy Curtis Bishop were called to 1222 Johnson County 1723 about 1 a. m. May 15 on a call Billy Nobles’ home had been burglarized.

On their way to the scene, they found a pickup parked off the road near the home. Both front tires were flat. Checking the license plate against vehicle registration records showed the pickup belonged to Kauffeld.

Nobles showed deputies a glass door that was shattered and said several items were missing, Gibbons said. Some of the items were found in a ditch near the home.

The department’s police dog unit, consisting of Raymond and Sue Christian, was called in. While Bishop investigated the burglary scene, Gibbons said, Smith went with the Christians to try to track the burglar.

Gibbons said Nobles left out several pieces of information. Nobles didn’t tell deputies he knew Kauffeld was the burglar and Nobles confronted Kauffeld in Nobles’ home earlier that night. Nobles didn’t tell them he and Kauffeld had been feuding over a woman the past few months, or he found Kauffeld’s pickup and slashed the front tires.

Nobles also didn’t tell deputies Kauffeld was armed with a .22-caliber rifle.

The police dog team and Smith were searching in the pitch dark on a road when Smith thought he detected movement just off the road, Gibbons said. Smith yelled “put your hands up” and was immediately fired on. He tried to gather himself, as Gibbons put it, and was able to fire off 10 rounds from his .45- caliber pistol before falling dead.

Gibbons said investigators found five spent .22-caliber rounds at the scene.

The Christians heard the .22-caliber gunfire whiz by their heads and hit the ground. Raymond Christian yelled they were from the Sheriff ’s Office, and Kauffeld surrendered, Gibbons said.

Kauffeld’s attorney, Bill James of Little Rock, told jurors in his opening statement Smith never identified himself as a deputy before firing first at Kauffeld, who he said was sleeping behind a tree. Kauffeld returned fire in the dark.

James told jurors Kauffeld believed Nobles recruited men to find and beat him.

James said Kauffeld and Nobles were fighting over a woman, Nancy Deatherage, who they wooed back and forth from each other.

On May 15, James said, Deatherage called Kauffeld and complained Nobles had beaten her. He went to Nobles’ home and picked up Deatherage and her possessions and took her to his home. He dropped her off, telling her he had to run an errand.

James said Kauffeld went back to Nobles’ home to pick up Deatherage’s remaining possessions so she wouldn’t have an excuse to return to the home again. He said no burglary was ever committed because none of the property Kauffeld removed from Nobles’ home belonged to him.

While inside, Nobles returned and found Kauffeld. Kauffeld ran out a back door and fell, losing his glasses and the rifle, and opened a stitched cut in his knee, James said.

Nobles drove to where Kauffeld parked the pickup, slashed the tires and waited for Kauffeld to show up so he could beat him up, James said. When Kauffeld didn’t show up, he returned home and found the glass door smashed and Kauffeld’s rifle, which Nobles had locked in his home, missing.

He then called the Sheriff’s Office and reported the burglary.

After the shooting, James said, Nobles went to Kauffeld’s home, picked up Deatherage and they spent that night in a motel.

Testimony begins at 9 a.m. today.