Murder trial to focus on question of self defense

The trial of a 32-year-old man charged in the shooting death of a Springfield man in 2015 opened Monday in Windsor County District Court.



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Springfield murder trial will hinge on self defense claim

Prosecutor Adam Korn told the jury Monday during the opening moments of Springfield resident Greg Smith's long awaited murder trial that Smith "assassinated a man in broad daylight".

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Murder trial to focus on question of self defenseFree Access | February 06, 2018 padrian@eagletimes.com padrian@eagletimes.com Facebook Twitter Google+ Share Gregory Smith stands in court Monday with attorney Jordana Levine waiting for the jury to enter. –PATRICK ADRIAN WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. – The trial of a 32-year-old man charged in the shooting death of a Springfield man in 2015 opened Monday in Windsor County District Court. Gregory Smith, 32, is charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Wesley Wing, 37, on April 18, 2015. Court records state Wing had a verbal altercation with Smith’s 25-year-old girlfriend, Wendy Morris, outside his home. Smith later approached Wing while driving a black Nissan Infinity and fired five shots then fled, according to court information. In their opening remarks to the jury Monday, attorneys argued over whether Smith was acting in reasonable self-defense. Jordana Levine, Smith’s attorney, told jurors Smith acted in self defense and had intended to talk to Wing. She said testimony will show that Wing was intoxicated at the time and seen beating his chest and yelling just before his fatal confrontation. “Mr. Wing made a choice,” Levine told the jury. ‘He chose to leave his house and pick a fight.” Levine said that Wing approached Smith’s vehicle, punched Smith and pushed his face against the steering wheel. Yhe defense attorney said testimony would show that Wing had unzipped his jacket, possibly suggesting to Smith that Wing might be armed. Police found no weapon on Wing. To explain why Smith would flee the scene and hide, if acting in self-defense, Levine pointed to his drug addiction. As an addict, he wasn’t thinking whether to call the police, Levine said and instead ws thinking about not wanting to detox; not wanting to be sick without heroin. But Assistant Attorney General Adam Korn dismissed Smith’s self-defense claim. “When you see the whole picture,” Korn told the jury, “you are going to be convinced, beyond all reasonable doubt, that Greg Smith wasn’t in fear for his life. There was no fight. He wasn’t under attack. Greg Smith was in his car when he gunned down Wesley Wing.” Korn said testimony will show that Smith’s vehicle approached Wing three times as Wing walked down South Street to Jake’s Market. Smith remained in the vehicle. After the first and second exchanges, Smith allegedly drove ahead and turned his vehicle around to confront Wing again. Korn said that on the third encounter, Smith parked in Wing’s path with his driver’s window facing Wing and fired five shots. Contrary to defense’s claim, Korn said, Wing was 10 feet away from the vehicle when Smith opened fire. The state’s witnesses will include Smith’s friends in Keene who helped him after fleeing. According to Korn, Smith told them Wing was on top of his vehicle and punching him, contradicting the narrative of his current defense. Friends will testify, Korn said, that the interior to Smith’s vehicle looked to be carefully cleaned with products and that he had disassembled and hid the firearm, a .40-caliber Smith and Wesson. At the end of his statement, Korn returned attention to its most pivotal counterargument to Smith’s self-defense claim: that Smith was in his car, armed with a firearm, and the victim was walking on the street. “This was not a fight that escalated,” he said. “This was an execution.” Springfield murder trial will hinge on self defense claim Report Vermont News Posted 41 minutes ago Subscribe Created by Eric Francis Opening arguments began Monday in a trial that could go two weeks WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - Prosecutor Adam Korn told the jury Monday during the opening moments of Springfield resident Greg Smith's long awaited murder trial that Smith "assassinated a man in broad daylight" after he drove his car up and positioned it blocking the sidewalk that victim Wesley Wing was walking along on South Street in Springfield moments before Smith opened fire on Wing on the morning of Saturday, April 18th, 2015. Advertisement: Content continues below... Advertise with DailyUV! "This was not an execution," defense attorney Jordana Levine emphasized moments later when it was her turn to make an opening counter-argument in the courtroom at the Windsor County Courthouse in downtown White River Junction where the second-degree murder trial against Smith, 32, is expected to continue for up to two weeks. Korn stressed that investigators found shell casings on the pavement at the intersection of Cheryl Lane and South Street which, he suggested, proved Smith's hand was extended clear out the driver's side window of his black Infiniti as he pointed a .40 caliber pistol toward Wing whom Korn said was standing somewhere between four and ten feet away as five shots were fired into his body. Vermont Assistant Attorney General Adam Korn points to a map of Springfield as Judge Timothy Tomasi looks on from the bench. Korn told the jurors, "You're going to be convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that Greg Smith wasn't in fear of his life. There was no fight. He was not under attack," when he opened fire on Wing. Korn showed jurors surveillance camera footage taken from inside Jake's Market in which Smith's car could be seen doing a rapid loop through the parking lot as Smith reversed direction on South Street and headed toward the direction from which Wing was walking. Other video clips taken moments later show a startled patron looking up as she heard the burst of gunfire just a few yards away and the clerk handing her a phone so that she could call 911 and then a final clip as Wing can be seen walking doubled over, clutching his torso, before he came through the door and collapsed just inside the convenience store. A video screen in the courtroom projects the video camera at Jake's Market capturing the moment a mortally wounded Wesley Wing staggered through the front doors Wing died later that same evening after he was airlifted to the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center from Springfield Hospital where he had initially been treated. Levine stressed to the jurors that, despite the number of witnesses who police interviewed who saw parts of the shooting unfold or its immediate aftermath, the only living witness who was right there at the intersection is Greg Smith and she said Smith is going to claim he fired in self-defense after Wing suddenly sucker punched him in the face and then reached through the driver's side window and pinned his head against the steering wheel. Defense Attorney Jordana Levine told the jurors that "Greg Smith fell victim to heroin, like so many others in his community...and it ruined his life." Levine said that everyone who will testify in Smith's trial has been impacted by heroin either directly or indirectly while living and working in Springfield. At stake in the case is a presumptive 20-year-to-life sentence if Smith were to be convicted of the second-degree murder charge that he is facing. The day's first witness was widow Sheila Wing who acknowledged to defense attorney Brian Marsicovetere that her husband Wes had been drinking that Saturday when he suddenly went outside and confronted Greg Smith's girlfriend, Wendy Morris, as she sat in a car parked on their street. Witnesses said that Wes Wing was angry over what he suspected was drug dealing along the street by both Morris and Smith and so he yelled at Morris to "get her car and her drugs out of the neighborhood" and did it loudly enough that Sheila Wing said she was concerned other neighbors were likely to call the police about the disturbance. Shiela Wing testified, tearfully at times, that she was so concerned that her husband was on the brink of being charged with disorderly conduct that she walked outside with her children as she called Wing's boss on the phone to see if he could drive over and pick Wes up and take him somewhere before things escalated. Widow Sheila Wing took the witness stand Monday and testified about her husband Wesley's last moments Crossing the street to the lower parking lot of Springfield High School, Wing said she watched as her husband stomped up the sidewalk toward Jake's Market and a short time later Morris's car and then Smith's car began following her husband up the road. Wing told the jury that she feared Wes was "about to get beaten up" and said she saw him for the last time in her life as he walked across the crosswalk. Sheila Wing testified that as she was "power walking" with her two youngest children to try and keep him in sight she heard the shots ring out and, even without being able to see directly what had happened, she told Wesley's boss on the phone "They just shot my husband." Life-long Springfield resident Greg Smith, 32, (flanked by defense attorneys Brian Marsicovetere and Jordana Levine) maintains he fired in self-defense after he said Wesley Wing reached into his car and pinned his head against the steering wheel, a version of events that police and prosecutors allege is contradicted by witness accounts. Vermont News can be contacted at vermontnews802@gmail.com