During the rape trial, the pastor commits suicide.
During a court break, a 51-year-old Georgia pastor on trial for many offenses, including the rape of a child, committed himself.
Smith’s defense lawyer, Shevon Thomas II, said that Christopher Daron Smith, a former pastor at Word of Truth Outreach Ministries in Columbus, committed suicide Wednesday during a five-minute break in the trial right before the last witness was to speak.
According to Church Leaders, Smith was charged with child molestation in 2019 after a police standoff in which he barricaded himself inside a home with a firearm and threatened to shoot himself, according to Church Leaders, who added that he eventually surrendered peacefully. Smith later killed himself in a government center courtroom behind Thomas’ office.
I’ve never seen a dead corpse before outside of funerals. My first reaction was astonishment. I yelled at him and ordered him to stand up. Thomas was cited as stating, “My mind was going a million miles an hour.”
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The lawyer continued by saying he would keep on praying. This is just my second try, so I really couldn’t have predicted how it would turn out.
According to The Ledger-Enquirer, Up Next Smith was on trial before Superior Court Judge Maureen Gottfried for two charges of aggravated child molestation, child molestation, sodomy, and aiding in the delinquency of a minor. If found guilty, Smith would have faced life in prison.
The court rejected Smith’s attorney’s plea for a mistrial due to a problem with witness sequestration. He then asked for a brief pause so Smith could go to his vehicle and get his spectacles.
But he never made it back. Thomas discovered his dead body, and Gottfried threw out the jury to put a stop to the case.
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