Prosecutors drop death sentence of gang leader in bungled case. Pleads to lesser charge
One of Miami’s most notorious gang leaders, who for more than two decades sat on Death Row after four murder convictions, not only had his life spared Wednesday — but learned he may walk out of prison a free man while he’s still in his 70s.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said Wednesday it could no longer move forward with Corey Smith’s re-sentencing trial for reasons ranging from dead and uncooperative witnesses, to a questionable jailhouse phone call between an informant and the state’s lead prosecutor.
It’s a phone call that not only led to the assistant state attorney’s dismissal from the case — but upended at least two other murder convictions by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
Smith’s attorneys worked out a deal in which the former Liberty City drug kingpin agreed to a 30-year sentence and pleaded guilty to several counts of second-degree murder and manslaughter for the deaths of Angel Wilson, Cynthia Brown, Leon Hadley and Jackie Pope in the 1990s. With time served since his 2005 conviction, that would only mean five more years in prison for Smith on the state charge.
Smith, however, was sentenced to 60 years in prison on a separate federal racketeering and gun charges case in 2001.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said she hoped the sentence brought “some measure of relief” to family members of the victims.
“Regrettably, in the almost twenty years since his conviction in 2004, essential witnesses have died, others have refused to cooperate with prosecutors, and yet others have changed their prior statements or retracted their previous testimony,” Fernandez Rundle said in a statement Wednesday.
In a memo to Rundle recommending vacating Smith’s convictions, prosecutors outlined several witnesses who altered testimony. But one in particular stood out: Smith’s former girlfriend Tricia Geter, who claimed she lied during her 2004 testimony that helped convict Smith. Geter also said a prosecutor had threatened to charge her with crimes if she didn’t cooperate and that she intended to seek damages from the state.
The five veteran assistant state attorneys tasked with making the recommendation to Fernandez Rundle said recantations, the refusal to co-operate and the threat of a potential new trial, left them with little choice but to accept the defense’s offer of 30 years.
“If the court should determine that the Defendant is entitled to a new trial, a proposition that the State must seriously consider for the various reasons detailed above, then the State of Florida’s ability to prove the case beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt is grievously weakened given the current state of the available evidence,” they said.
In accepting the plea agreement, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Wolfson said it would have no bearing on Smith’s federal charges. He’s expected to be in federal prison for at least another 25 years. It wasn’t immediately clear Wednesday when Smith would be taken into federal custody or if he’d be moved from Miami-Dade County jail — where he’s been since a 2017 forced re-sentencing — to a state prison.
What was clear, however, was how relieved Smith and friends and family seated behind him were, and how some family members of the murder victims remained unhappy with actions from the state that they believe led to the plea deal.
Victim’s son: Mother never saw him graduate from Harvard
Jerome Fulton, whose mother Angel Wilson was shot 16 times by associates of Smith, recited a lengthy heartfelt statement in which he said he had “no choice but to make peace” with Smith’s sentencing and urged prosecutors who “failed us,” to do better.
Fulton said he rued that his mother never had the chance to see him graduate from the University of Florida, the University of Southern California and Harvard Business School.
“My mother was hunted down like an animal and shot 16 times by four men,” said Fulton, who went on to say that “though justice may have failed us, hope has not.”
His message moved the judge: “Your words will stay with me for the rest of my career,” said Wolfson.
Jailhouse phone call began unraveling the case
Smith’s re-sentencing began to unravel in March when Judge Wolfson learned of a phone call between former Assistant State Attorney Michael Von Zamft and a jailed informant. During the call, Von Zamft seemed to be trying to get potential witnesses to shore up testimony.
Wolfson removed Von Zamft from the case, saying it “reeks of the appearance of impropriety.” Also removed was prosecutor Stephen Mitchell, for arguing in retaining Von Zamft, the judge said.
The revelations unraveled other murder convictions tied to the same informant. Last summer, the state vacated the murder conviction and life sentence of Taji Pearson. He’s expected to be released this summer. And Jimmy Washington was re-sentenced to 18 years in prison. Pearson and Washington were involved in the 2010 murder of a 15-year-old, Sabrina O’Neil, who was killed by a stray bullet while visiting a friend at a Miami housing project.
With Wolfson signing off on the agreement, Smith’s side of the courtroom was near jubilant. Handcuffed and dressed in a red jumpsuit signifying a high-profile prisoner, Smith, all smiles, turned to friends and family seated behind him to say hello and thank them.
“I believe this plea is my best interest,” Smith told the judge.
Sentenced to death for four murders, suspected of others
Smith and the John Doe Gang - named after the toe tags on anonymous victims at the morgue - gained notoriety in the mid-1990s after a series of Liberty City murders at popular drug holes. The John Does were taking over the dope holes.
By 1999, Smith and several others were convicted of drug and firearm charges in federal court. A year later, a Miami-Dade grand jury indicted Smith and seven others on 17 counts for crimes committed in connection with gang activity in Liberty City.
By 2004, Miami-Dade jurors found Smith guilty of the four murders — Wilson, Brown, Hadley and Pope
— and of manslaughter in the deaths of Melvin Lipscomb and Marlon Beneby. Smith was accused of ordering most of the deaths and participating personally in the drive-by shooting of Hadley.
The case, which launched the careers of several prosecutors, had law enforcement flooding the courthouse. Smith was forced to wear a stun belt at trial in case he tried to escape. In 2005, he was sentenced to death. But as Smith fought for his life over the years, the case stayed tied up in a court system in which death penalty rule changes are all too common.
Smith’s most recent re-sentencing was ordered in 2023, after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state legislators became incensed that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooter Nikolas Cruz was not sentenced to death with a unanimous jury vote. So they created a new law in which only a two-thirds super-majority is now needed to send a convict to Death Row.
Smith’s case, in particular, exposed state prosecutors to withering criticism, particularly from defense attorneys who have cringed at what they allege to be unfair practices by prosecutors — like not turning over evidence timely — for decades.
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 6:10 PM.
