Defendant takes plea deal in slaying

Will testify against fellow inmate in child rape

A Milwaukee man admitted in a Memphis courtroom Friday to killing his sister’s husband on a front lawn in Cordova after hearing his sister’s claims of ongoing abuse.

James Zell Smith, 50, pleaded guilty to seconddegree murder in the 2010 shooting, stabbing and beating death of Fredrick Matting, who had been married to Smith’s sister for 30 years.

Prosecutors charged Smith with first-degree mur- der and he would have faced life in prison if convicted at trial. But Smith secured a plea deal of 13 years and six months in prison — with no parole — after agreeing to testify against a fellow inmate who is awaiting trial on charges of raping a blind 9-year-old girl.

During a hearing Friday before Criminal Court Judge James Lammey Jr., Smith told prosecutors that the inmate sketched a lewd drawing of a child in pigtails engaged in a sex act with a man. Smith also said that while the inmate denied having molested the girl, he made sexual comments about her.

Asst. Dist. Atty. Eric Christensen asked Smith if he is willing to testify against the man, who may not go on trial for more than a year. Smith agreed.

Smith’s plea deal also required him to cooperate with prosecutors in the murder case against his sister, Patricia Matting, 53. He testified at her trial that she convinced him to kill her husband, a 51-year-old machinist, by saying, “I could shoot him myself, but do you want your sister to go to jail for life?”

Smith testified that he wore a stocking mask, hat and hood that night but the victim recognized him, saying, “Zell, what the (expletive) are you doing?”

Smith shot him in the front yard of the victim’s Afton Grove home. Matting then pulled out a knife to defend himself, but Smith wrestled it away and stabbed Matting. Smith then used the butt of the gun to beat Matting, prosecutor Neal Oldham told the judge Friday.

When Patricia Matting went on trial in 2012 on first- degree murder charges, she, her daughter and son all testified about physical abuse by Fredrick Manning. Jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.

So, prosecutors allowed her to plead guilty in August to reduced charges of reckless homicide and false offense reporting in exchange for an eight-year sentence. She will receive credit for about six months she already served and will be eligible for parole after serving about two years.

Prosecutors believe Patricia Matting offered to pay off her brother’s truck loan as payment for the murder. Outside court, Smith’s attor- Patricia Matting James Zell Smith ney, Bill Massey said Smith — who had never been charged with a violent crime before — is remorseful.

After the murder, Smith returned to his home in Milwaukee but came back to Memphis and parked outside the victim’s funeral, meeting up with relatives after the service.