News Staff Writer

ROGERS CITY – Jurors found Damien Michael Smith guilty of committing a 2014 drive-by shooting in Rogers City.

After a two-day trial, the jury found the 21-year-old Alpena man guilty of all 13 charges against him, including one for assault with intent to murder. Despite Smith’s testimony that he had lied to police about his involvement out of fear that those actually involved would come for his family, he was found guilty of driving to Rogers City on June 4 and firing several times at a house where a man and Smith’s ex-girlfriend were partying.

Smith could spend up to life in prison for committing assault with intent to murder, according to Michigan law, and 53rd Circuit Court Judge Scott Pavlich tentatively set his sentencing for Sept. 14. Smith is currently incarcerated on other convictions.

Presque Isle Prosecuting Attorney Richard Steiger said the verdict is the result of excellent cooperation between Rogers City and Alpena police, along with Presque Isle County Sheriff’s deputies. While sheriff’s deputies helped process the scene of the shooting, Rogers City police quickly identified a suspect and worked with Alpena police to investigate the crime.

“Without the investigation and the thoroughness of it, I don’t think we would’ve received the outcome we received this morning, and I’m glad the jury deliberated and returned a just and fair verdict in this case,” he said.

Taking the stand in his own defense, Smith testified Thursday that he’d taken his mother’s car without permission and drove up to Rogers City with the intent of fighting a man he’d argued with over the phone earlier. However, he didn’t intend to kill the man, he testified, but told police after the shooting that he did intend to kill him. While he claimed someone rode with him in his mother’s car and more people came along in another vehicle, he refused to say more or identify the others.

Smith testified he feared those actually responsible for the shooting would come for his family if he identified them, and believed law enforcers were unwilling to help, so he made up a story about committing the shooting alone. While he said he’d asked Rogers City Police Sgt. Jamie Meyer about a personal protective order for his family, Meyer testified Smith never made such a request to him.

In his closing argument Thursday, Steiger disputed the credibility of Smith’s claim that he’d lied to police in his confession. The prosecutor said police found a live shotgun round in Smith’s mother’s car the same day of the shooting and that he’d called someone at the house after the first shots were fired to tell them to watch for more. Furthermore, police found the remains of spent shotgun shells in Smith’s father’s fire pit, where he had told police that he’d disposed of them, and witnesses described seeing a vehicle similar to his mother’s at the scene of the shooting.

Ronald Bayot, Smith’s attorney, said Thursday that no witness could place Smith at the time and place of the shooting beyond a reasonable doubt, and that no ballistics tests or other hard evidence was gathered to link Smith’s shotgun to the crime. One witness seemed to indicate that more than one person was behind the shooting, and Smith had made things up as he went along when talking to police after the shooting.

Bayot declined to comment after the jury delivered its verdict Friday.

Jordan Travis can be reached via email at jtravis@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5688. Follow Jordan on Twitter @jt_alpenanews. Read his blog, A Snowball’s Chance, at www.thealpenanews.com.