Suspect in NMSP officer's death released from prison in December

The 33-year-old suspect being held in the fatal shooting of a New Mexico State Police officer on Interstate 40 near Tucumcari was released from the South Carolina prison system less than four months ago, the Journal has learned.

Jaremy Smith, of Marion, South Carolina, had been placed on community supervision in South Carolina on Dec. 1 after being incarcerated for about 10 years, according to corrections authorities in that state.

Smith originally had been sentenced to five years for attempted armed robbery and seven years for hostage taking by an inmate in 2015 while he was in the Marion County Detention Center in northeast South Carolina. With good time deductions, he was released Dec. 1, 2023.

He was to spend the next year on community supervision, similar to probation or parole in South Carolina.

But Smith now faces a possible life sentence, or the death penalty, if convicted of federal crimes related to the early morning fatal shooting of New Mexico State Police officer Justin Hare on March 15. He is charged federally with carjacking resulting in death and discharge of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Smith had been the subject of a multi-state, multi-jurisdictional manhunt after Hare was killed while trying to help Smith with a flat tire on a white BMW parked on the side of the Interstate near mile marker 318.

The stranded vehicle turned out to be owned by a South Carolina paramedic who was found shot to death in Dillon County, South Carolina, also on March 15. She had been reported missing several days earlier.

A motion filed in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque by Smith’s defense attorney states that during an “encounter” with Bernalillo County Sheriff’s officers on March 17, his client sustained “approximately four or five gunshot wounds” before he was taken into custody on Albuquerque’s West Side.

Smith underwent surgery at University of New Mexico hospital on March 21 for injuries sustained in the shooting by law enforcement officers. He was discharged the next day and has since been housed at the Cibola County Corrections Center.

He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing and a detention hearing Tuesday, but his attorney, Devon Fooks, filed a motion Monday asking for a continuance due to Smith being in a “tremendous amount of pain.”

“While in the hospital, care providers necessarily administered a particularly strong regimen of pain management medications. But at the Cibola County facility near Grants, he is receiving only Tylenol, Fooks stated in his motion.

“Due to the amount of pain Mr. Smith is currently experiencing, he is having a very difficult time focusing and is extremely uncomfortable and is therefore unable to participate meaningfully in any type of court proceeding including a preliminary hearing or a detention hearing,” the motion stated.

The criminal complaint filed March 22 in Albuquerque puts Smith in Albuquerque some three weeks before Hare’s fatal shooting. The FBI learned that on Feb. 27, the Albuquerque Police Department received a domestic violence call involving Smith and an unidentified woman. No arrests were made at the time related to the call, but APD body camera video of Smith later helped law enforcement locate him in connection with Hare’s death.

About 4:47 a.m. on March 15, Hare was dispatched to assist a disabled motorist. He arrived at the scene shortly after 5 a.m. and Smith walked up to the passenger side of the patrol vehicle and Hare offered to give Smith a ride to a nearby town because no repair shop was open, according to the criminal complaint.

According to dashcam video and footage from Hare’s body-worn camera, he asked Smith to walk to the front of the patrol vehicle. Immediately afterward, a flash and loud noise consistent with gunfire erupted. It appeared Hare was struck; he didn’t respond and slumped to the right. Smith then moved to the driver’s side of the patrol vehicle, fired again and pushed Hare into the passenger seat, and drove away. A duress signal, which was connected to Hare’s in-car radio or his portable radio, was activated about five minutes after he arrived on scene. In response, backup units were dispatched and found an unoccupied white BMW with a flat tire.

Hare’s patrol vehicle was located near mile marker 304 on a north frontage road off the interstate. The vehicle appeared to have crashed, and Hare was found in the vicinity with multiple gunshot wounds to his head and neck. He was transported to a local medical facility, where he died from his injuries.

Several 9 mm bullet casings were discovered in the patrol car as well as several bullets lodged in the vehicle. They included a bullet lodged in the lockbox in the back of the patrol car, which is normally used to safely lock up a police-issue AR-style semi-automatic rifle, the complaint stated.

Smith was captured after going to a gas station near Coors Boulevard SW and Blake Road SW. The gas station clerk recognized the name on the notification card presented by Smith to purchase items and contacted law enforcement. BCSO and State Police officers who responded to the area located Smith as he was walking. He fled on foot, with BCSO officers in pursuit. He was seen on BCSO body camera footage reaching for his waistband as officers closed in, and officers fired their duty weapons, striking him.

News reports show that in 2014, Smith, then 23, escaped from the Marion County, South Carolina, jail after he and another inmate overpowered two detention officers inside the lockup. The inmates handcuffed one and beat the other.

The inmates then stacked up chairs in the recreation area and one lifted the other up and over the recreation yard wall. Officials say the jail staff then called for help and EMS, and when the gates were opened for deputies and EMS to come inside, Smith ran out of the gated area. Deputies tracked and captured him about two hours later.

Earlier versions of this story misstated the first name of the state police officer who was killed.