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NewsOK
BY NOLAN CLAY nclay@opubco.com Oklahoman
Published: August 23, 2011
Kyle A. Smith is sentenced to life in prison plus 10 years. The Midwest City pleaded guilty to arson, conspiracy to commit arson, animal cruelty and two counts of first-degree murder. His grandparents David and Rose Garrick were hacked to death with a machete.
A Midwest City teenager admitted in court Tuesday that he murdered his grandparents with a machete, killed their dog and set their house on fire.
Kyle Alexander Smith, 17, was sentenced to life in prison, plus 10 years.
Under current law, the earliest he can be released on parole would be 2057.
Smith pleaded guilty to arson, conspiracy to commit arson, animal cruelty and two counts of first-degree murder.
The punishment was the outcome of a plea deal with prosecutors. He agreed to testify against two friends, who are charged as accessories.
Smith lived with David Garrick, 60, and Rose Garrick, 57. They were hacked and stabbed to death inside their house late March 22, prosecutors said. Their bodies were found after the house was set on fire the next morning.
Smith was captured later March 23 in Chickasha. He told one witness he was going to Mexico, police reported.
He was then 16. He turned 17 on March 24.
Police reported Smith made a video on his cellphone of his grandparents’ mutilated bodies minutes after killing them. He cursed and laughed in the video and can be seen poking both bodies with the machete, according to a police report about the video.
Police reported he attacked his grandparents after his grandmother stopped Smith from sneaking out of the house that night to meet a friend.
He told Oklahoma County District Judge Kenneth Watson that he is on medication for a bipolar disorder. His attorney told the judge the diagnosis of that mental illness came only after his arrest. He had been diagnosed previously as suffering from severe depression, the attorney said.
Charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson and accessory to first-degree murder are Dustin August Martin, 19, and Jacob Isaiah LeBlanc, 17.
In court papers, Smith told the judge Tuesday the two friends came to the house after the deaths. “We sat around smoking marijuana and talking about what to do,” he wrote.
He told the judge Martin was the one who came up with the idea of burning the house. “I worried about a fire drawing attention to the house but they both assured me that I should burn the house,” he wrote.
Smith stood before the judge in chains and red jail clothes for the brief sentencing. He answered the judge’s questions in a clear voice, saying, “Yes, sir.”
“I committed murder,” he said calmly when the judge asked him to explain what he had done.
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