A Gloucester man who was indicted by a Mathews grand jury in March 2021 for shooting a resident on Chapel Neck Road in North has been tried and found guilty of drug trafficking and firearms offenses in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Norfolk.
Eric Lee Smith, 40, had faced charges of armed robbery, aggravated malicious wounding, and two counts of use of a firearm in commission of a felony for offenses that occurred on Nov. 25, 2020 in Mathews, but those charges were nolle prossed when the federal charges were brought against him.
According to a press release from the Mathews County Sheriff’s Office, when deputies arrived at the scene of the Nov. 25 shooting, they found a victim who had been shot multiple times. The victim was airlifted to Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News in stable condition.
Witnesses at the scene stated that the suspect, Smith, had pulled up to the residence, talked to the victim, and then opened fire with an automatic weapon, striking the victim and his vehicle several times. Smith then reached inside the victim’s vehicle and removed property belonging to the victim before fleeing the scene. Surrounding jurisdictions were given a description of the suspect and his vehicle, and he was later arrested by the King and Queen County Sheriff’s Office.
A press release from Attorney Jessica D. Aber of the Eastern District, who announced the resolution of the case along with Charlie J. Patterson, special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, said that, according to court records and evidence presented at trial, Smith engaged in a methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy in Gloucester County and surrounding areas in 2019 and 2020. Further, Smith and other conspirators obtained quantities of methamphetamine from Arizona and caused it to be transported to Virginia, where Smith stored it in various locations and distributed it for profit.
Smith also possessed firearms in the course of the conspiracy, said the release, and “on Nov. 25, 2020, he was in possession of an illegal machine gun and unregistered silencer and used the machine gun to shoot another individual.”
On Monday, March 21, after a five-day jury trial held before U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson, Smith was convicted of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, using and maintaining drug premises, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, illegal possession of a machine gun, and possession of an unregistered firearm. On the charge of brandishing and discharging a firearm, identified as a 762 x 25mm PPS 43 type machine gun, which was related to the shooting in Mathews, the jury found Smith not guilty.
Smith faces a mandatory minimum sentence of at least 15 years and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment across the various convictions when sentenced on Aug. 8 in Norfolk federal court. Aber noted that actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties allowed.
In her press release, Aber gave special thanks to the Mathews County Sheriff’s Office for its assistance in the case. Prosecutors were U.S. Attorneys Lisa McKeel and Devon Heath.