Alleged Fontana Heights shooting occurred in 2016
James "Jay" Smith
Robbinsville – After countless starts and stops, a trial five years in the making will begin jury selection Monday.
James Jay Smith Sr., now 82, has had two felony charges of attempted murder looming over his head since a July 2016 incident in Fontana Heights, when a dispute between Smith and now 53-year-old Joseph Shaffer led to Shaffer being shot and losing his right eye. Smith and Shaffer shared a private driveway, and Smith suffered a gunshot wound in the hand during the exchange.
District Attorney Ashley Welch opted to pursue charges over the 2016 incident after another Smith-involved shooting occurred in August 2018.
Officers arrived to Smith’s home and found his wife, Brenda, bleeding from a gunshot wound. Smith had a shotgun in his hands when deputies arrived, and he was taken into custody without incident.
The trial was penciled in to take place in November 2020 – which would have made the case Graham County’s first jury trial since the COVID-19 pandemic began – but it was later postponed.
Graham County commissioners secured the use of the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center to hold the trial – which was the only facility in the county large enough to accommodate both jury deliberations and social distancing – but relaxed restrictions will allow for the trial to take place in the Graham County Courthouse.