“Gun Death” Multiple Family

Wow this is a BRUTAL case.

A New Hampshire man was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison Friday for beating his wife to death with a flashlight after he came home to find she had strangled their 4-year-old son with a ribbon and tried to kill their 7-year-old daughter.

Quick reading I was surprised he was sentenced for that long, but I read further.

“When I walked into the room, as soon as I saw my son, I knew something was very wrong,” Smeltzer told the court before he was sentenced, his voice breaking at times. “I knew he was dead. And I lost all control. Enraged, I struck my wife. I did something that was not going to bring my son back.”

Smeltzer was charged with second-degree murder in the November 2010 killing at their Auburn home. Prosecutors later downgraded that to manslaughter, saying he was provoked by the sight of the still bodies of their son, Mason, and daughter, Mercey.

He didn’t actually catch her in the act, but killed her in retaliation.

Those who use the metric of “Gun Death” frequently talk about justifiable homicide laws as “Shoot first, ask questions later” or “License to Murder”. Nope, even if he had used a gun he would still be facing the same charges, even in Gun-Friendly New Hampshire.

And let’s look at the weapons, ribbons, and a flashlight. How many of us have those items around our homes? How many of us have dead bodies in our homes?

Its the people, not the tool.

As for the People, I will say I sympathize with the Father, I don’t know if I could have acted differently in the same circumstances.

h/t Wallphone

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0 Responses to “Gun Death” Multiple Family

  1. Jake says:

    I suspect that he got the ridiculously heavy sentence because he didn’t try fighting it. It’s certainly a pretty good case for a defense of “not guilty by reason of temporary insanity” if I’ve ever heard one.

    It’s a very sad and horrifying case.

  2. Roadkill says:

    I really feel for this man. He has literally lost everything. His wife, his son, his freedom, and though his daughter lives he will totally miss her childhood and basically the bonds between them will be nothing more than blood. What is worse, he basically gave his wife what she wanted too. However, if a female bear came upon any threat that had just killed her cubs or she thought had, few people dispute the mothers right to exterminate the threat be in total retaliatory rage or otherwise. That he owned up to what he’d done was admirable. I do not think it would have been hard to get off on a temporary insanity defense. For that reason, I see why they downgraded the charges against him. He honestly believed his life was over. I have to wonder if he would have acted different had he known his daughter was alive.

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