In a case whose facts Augusta prosecutors called “baffling,” a Richmond County jury convicted Augusta man Zaiara Dantrice Smith of murder in the August 2020 shooting death of Augusta man Tobias Fleming.
“You left my son by a dumpster like he was garbage,” Fleming’s mother, Kiki Fleming, testified at Smith’s brief trial.
The jury found Smith, 31, guilty of malice murder, felony murder and possession of a firearm. Richmond County Superior Court Judge John Flythe sentenced Smith to life without parole followed by five years.
According to prosecutors, Smith went to the Shalimar Drive apartment of a cousin where Fleming, 21, and his girlfriend lived. He told the cousin he was a prophet who needed to rid the home of “demons,” went outside to smoke and drink, then shot Fleming five times.
Smith fled and when police arrived, tried to hide. The murder weapon was found days later in a pack of diapers.
“What demons do is turn a young man with a beautiful smile who works hard and just wants to be with his girlfriend” into a man shot dead in the forehead and face, Violent Crimes Unit Assistant District Attorney Keagan Waystack told jurors Wednesday.
Neither man had much of a criminal history and Smith would later claim self-defense, saying Fleming had a loaded gun on his person.
