Versions of events wildly differ between warring neighbors
Robbinsville – There are serious differences between James Smith’s and Joe Shaffer’s accounts of the July 27, 2016 shootout outside Smith’s Fontana Heights house.
But in the end, it came down to one thing: Joe Shaffer shot first.
After a week-long trial in Robbinsville, a jury of nine men and three women acquitted the 82-year-old Friday, of attempted first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury.
It took the jury about three hours to reach its verdict.
The incident
According to Smith’s and his lawyers’ account, the fight stemmed from an earlier argument between his wife Brenda and the Shaffers’ teenage daughter.
Shaffer – at that time, a 285-pound war veteran, suffering from PTSD – came onto Smith’s porch wanting to see Brenda, angrily told James to go back inside, pointed a pistol at him and fired. James was wounded around his waist and knocked out teeth when he fell.
James said he rushed inside, pushed his wife aside, grabbed his Remington semi-automatic 20-gauge shotgun and fired three rounds of birdshot at Shaffer before going back inside, slumping in his easy chair, and passing out from his wound.
According to Shaffer and the prosecution, James was angry about a barking dog. Shaffer was driving home after picking up mail when he saw James on his porch brandishing a shotgun at him. Shaffer stopped his truck and grabbed a pistol he had in his pocket that was alternately loaded with snake shot and bullets. He twisted around in his seat to aim at James through the truck window, shouting that “now I have a gun, too.”
Brenda came onto the porch and whispered something into James’ ear. James let the barrel of his shotgun dip but then raised it again.
Appearing that James was going to shoot him, Shaffer fired a round of snake shot from his pistol. James returned fire, shooting the pistol out of Shaffer’s hand, and blowing out the back window and the side view mirror.
Aftermath
Both men were hospitalized following the exchange. Shaffer lost a finger and an eye.
James Smith was on a ventilator and it was eight days before he gave a statement to law enforcement.
But it was almost two years later – when Smith shot and wounded Brenda in her hand – that District Attorney Ashley Welch revisited the case and filed charges against Smith, apologizing to Shaffer for taking so long and blaming a staff error.
Smith’s lawyers, Franklin-based Rich Cassady and Murphy-based Holly Christy, based their case on self defense. “He (Shaffer) has gotten away with shooting Mr. Smith,” Cassady told the jury during closing arguments. “Let’s not fool ourselves.”
“In Graham County,” Cassady later said, “if you get shot, we shoot you back.”
The prosecutor, James Moore, argued that Smith started the fight by brandishing a shotgun.
As is the case with all jury trials, jurors are instructed to convict a defendant if they believe he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Moore told the jury that “reasonable doubt … does not mean beyond all doubt. The state doesn’t have to present a perfect case.”
The setting
The Shaffers bought the house at 1131 Fontana Heights Road – a dirt and gravel road – a short time before the shooting.
Whenever they drove anywhere, they drove by the Smiths’ house, which is located right on the edge of the road.
Smith said the Shaffers would speed past his house going to and from their house, but added, “There was a lot of traffic. I was basically used to it.”
Now-Graham County sheriff Jerry Crisp took a statement on Aug. 1, 2016, in which Shaffer mentioned being angry with Brenda Smith, who had reportedly gotten into an argument with the Shaffers’ then-16-year-old daughter.
Shaffer has also claimed that Smith was mad about Shaffer’s dog barking.
From testimony
During the trial, testimony was given by Shaffer, Smith, Jeff Williams (the EMT who responded to the scene), Joseph Jones (a sheriff’s investigator at the time), and Sheriff Jerry Crisp (who took a statement from Shaffer before Crisp became sheriff).
A major issue with the case is that the scene of the shooting was disturbed before law enforcement arrived, and important forensic evidence was not preserved. For example, blood on the porch was not preserved and for that reason, it became one man’s word against another as to where the shootout took place — either entirely on Smith’s porch, or between Smith’s porch and Shaffer’s truck.
During his testimony, Smith said he didn’t know Shaffer before July 27, 2016, and first met him when Shaffer showed up “very angry” and speaking with a “high voice” on his porch at 873 Fontana Heights Road near the Town of Fontana Dam in Graham County.
“I never said a word to him,” Smith said. “He said, ‘If you don’t get back in the house I’m going to shoot you.’”
Smith said Shaffer held a pistol low but aimed at him such that he was looking down the barrel.
At that point, Smith said Shaffer shot him with snake shot, hitting him around the belt line.
Smith said he doubled over from the wound, knocking teeth out in the process, and went into the house to grab his shotgun, which he keeps loaded with bird shot and uses to shoot squirrels in his yard. He returned to the porch and opened fire, shooting three times.
“I shot him before he could kill me and Brenda,” Smith said, admitting that he was shooting to kill.
“I turned and went inside. I dropped my gun and plopped in the chair. I don’t remember much after that,” he said.
Smith was recovering from open-heart surgery and was taking a number of medications, which he said his wife would dispense to him from a slotted pill container that she kept organized.
But a photo taken by law enforcement the day of the shooting showed medicine bottles on a table beside Smith’s easy chair.
The picture also showed a beer can. Some of the medications on the table should not be taken with alcoholic beverages, but Smith’s blood was not tested for a blood alcohol level.
Smith testified that he never drinks beer, nor does his wife drink. He said he kept beer in the house to give to visitors.
Defense attorneys objected to drinking being brought up as evidence. It could not be determined if the can was unopened or open – empty or full – and Smith’s blood was not tested for alcohol.
Smith’s lawyers argued that the beer can should not be considered evidence since it could not be proven to be used by Smith.
“The presence of beer can be highly prejudicial in a dry county,” Christy argued.
Moore argued that presence of the beer can showed inconsistencies in Smith’s testimony.
“He said he never drank, but there’s a beer can sitting next to where he sits,” Moore said.
“I don’t know much about either,” Superior Court Judge Knight said, “other than that they were there when the picture was taken.”
Testimony ended on March 3 around lunchtime, after which Judge Knight and the lawyers worked out details of the jury instructions that would be read to the jury before deliberating the case.
Cassady said charges against Smith stemming from the shooting of his wife in summer 2018 are still pending, but he expects will likely be dismissed.
“Brenda won’t cooperate,” he said. “She believes it was an accident.”