Defendant pleads guilty in 2006 shooting death

The shooting was prompted by a drug deal gone bad, an assistant prosecutor said.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Detectives Michael Currington and Michael Krafcik of the Warren Police Department responded to the scene of a shooting in November 2006 in time to get a video recording of the victim that helped solve the case.

Waymon Keller, 50, of Euclid, couldn’t tell detectives the name of his assailant. But he did point to a man at the scene and tell them that the man was a buddy of the shooter.

Keller died about six hours later in the hospital from abdominal wounds.

The buddy later identified the shooter as Matthew R. Smith of Williamsburg Street in Warren, said Chris Becker, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.

On Friday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, Smith, 25, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of involuntary manslaughter with a three-year specification that he used a gun in Keller’s death.

Smith was indicted on a murder charge with a gun specification, which carried a possible penalty of 18 years to life.

Judge John M. Stuard sentenced Smith to the maximum sentence allowed for involuntary manslaughter with a gun specification — 13 years.

Smith also pleaded guilty to four other charges related to an Oct. 6, 2006, incident in which he fired a gun into a home on Martin Street Southwest. Those charges added four years for a total prison sentence of 17 years.

Becker said the shooting occurred during a drug deal gone bad, when Smith gave Keller a phony substance instead of a drug he wanted, Becker said.

Smith shot Keller in the argument that ensued outside of a Lancer Court apartment on Warren’s west side, Becker said.