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PB MAN CONVICTED OF MURDER, NOW FEDERAL GUN CHARGE

By Ray King/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, November 19, 2009 11:06 PM CST

A Pine Bluff man sentenced to prison in March after being convicted of killing his young niece more than three years ago, was convicted Wednesday on federal gun charges at Little Rock.

Theodis Jordan Smith, 33, could receive up to 10 years in prison and a potential maximum fine of $250,000 for the federal conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Under federal sentencing guidelines, the federal court will decide if that sentence will run consecutively, concurrently, or partially consecutively to his current sentence in state prison.

On March 19, Smith was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder in the Nov. 29, 2005, death of Ladeedra Daniels, 3 1/2 years old. The child was pronounced dead at Jefferson Regional Medical Center where she had been taken by Smith’s wife, Angela Smith, and another woman.

While police detectives were investigating the death of Daniels, they found a loaded .38-caliber Rossi revolver near Smith’s feet, and a New England single shot .20-gauge shotgun on the couch of the house he shared with Angela Smith at 6609 Jones St.

Because of a March 13, 1996, conviction for robbery in Jefferson County Circuit Court, Smith was prohibited from having the firearms, and a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office at Little Rock said the jury found Smith guilty of possession of both weapons.

“This case was a perfect example of the impact that we can achieve through Project Safe Neighborhoods when federal and local authorities are working together,” U.S. Attorney Jane Duke said. “Under PSN, federal and local authorities work collaboratively in determining how to most aggressively charge and prosecute violent offenders who continue to possess firearms. In this case, prosecution of the offender on both state and federal charges has served to take one violent criminal out of our neighborhoods for a long time.”

Under Project safe Neighborhoods, gun related offenses are referred to federal prosecutors because of longer prison sentences and the fact that there is no parole in the federal system.

Smith will be sentenced on March 9, 2010, at 10 a.m. by federal Judge William R. Wilson Jr.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julie Peters and Edward Walker prosecuted the case for the government.

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