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Convicted murderer entitled to new trial on firearms charge

Vincent L. Smith is entitled to a new trial, the Appeals Court ruled Tuesday -- not in the 2005 murder of Leon Tyrise Brooks, but on a firearms-possession charge of which he was convicted in 2006.

By PAT PHEIFER, Star Tribune

Last update: May 14, 2008 - 12:19 AM

Convicted murderer Vincent L. Smith is entitled to a new trial, the Appeals Court ruled Tuesday -- not in the 2005 murder of Leon Tyrise Brooks, but on a firearms-possession charge of which he was convicted in 2006.

According to court documents, police searched the home of Smith's on-again off-again girlfriend on Sept. 15, 2005, and found a .25-caliber handgun, a prescription bottle belonging to Smith, an ID card in Smith's name and man's clothing.

The girlfriend said of the gun, "It must be Vincent's," the documents said. Smith was charged with possession of a firearm by an ineligible person, a felony. A Ramsey County jury found him guilty in August 2006.

In ordering a new trial, the three-judge Appeals Court panel said the lower court "abused its discretion" when it allowed the jury to hear about a 2001 conviction on the same charge.

There are "more dissimilarities than similarities" between the two crimes, the ruling said, and the danger the jury would use the prior conviction "improperly for character purposes was substantial."

The court also said it was unfairly prejudicial to show the jury a photograph of Smith and another man posing in front of two handguns on a table.

The photo "clearly shows that neither man is in actual possession of the guns ... but the nearly inescapable message the picture conveys is that these are gun-toting gangsters."

Smith, 26, pleaded guilty in November to second-degree murder in Brooks' 2005 death and was sentenced in January to more than 26 years in prison. An accomplice, Tyvarus Lindsey, was convicted of the same crime in October.

County Attorney Susan Gaertner said her office plans to retry Smith on the firearms charge. Smith's sentence on the murder conviction was determined by his criminal record, including the firearms conviction, she said.

"If we did not retry the case he would presumably ask to be resentenced in the homicide case," Gaertner said.

Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551