Some murders are cut and dry with a clear suspect. Others require vigorous police investigation because they’re anything but clear-cut.
The beating death of Dimetria Smith is one of the latter. The perpetrators might seem obvious, but there is simply not enough evidence to prosecute anyone.
The Smith case is especially tragic because her murder occurred just a week shy of her third birthday.
In September 1991, Smith’s grandparents Joseph and Mi Ja Wallace rushed her to an unnamed family physician in Wrens, Ga., according to the coroner’s report on the murder. The physician instructed the Wallaces to take the child to the emergency room rather than calling for an ambulance.
Smith was dead by the time she arrived at Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon.
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Three doctors, including a pediatric specialist, failed to revive the child. As the doctors worked to save her life, they discovered that Smith’s body showed a story of repeated abuse.
Rather than comforting the family, the doctors called the police.
Legendary Richmond County Sheriff’s Investigator Pat Young arrived on the scene along with then-Coroner Leroy Sims. They determined Smith’s death to be a homicide.
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Smith’s body was covered in bruises. Some appeared to be fresh, and others could have been weeks or even months old. According to the autopsy report, Smith had bruising on her forehead, left temple, chest, abdomen and buttocks. Moreover, she had tearing of her rectum and an edema (fluid buildup) on her right hand that seemed to be consistent with a fracture that was healing.
When Young interviewed the grandmother Mi Ja Wallace’s answers were vague, according to the coroner’s report.
Mi Ja Wallace claimed she had left her husband, Joseph, briefly to care for Smith and another 5-year-old child. She said she was only gone long enough to pick up two additional children from school.
Mi Ja Wallace told Young that when she returned, Smith was lying on a bed and smelled of feces, so she put the child in the bathtub where the child slipped and hit her head. Rather than call an ambulance, Mi Ja Wallace said she put clean clothes on the child and took her to the family doctor.
This is where the story gets cloudy and complicated.
According to the coroner’s report, the autopsy results did not find conclusive results that the child’s death resulted from any particular blow. The story of slipping in the bathtub didn’t match the evidence either. Also, it wasn’t possible to determine how old some of the bruises were or when they occurred.
Both grandparents insisted that they had taken the child three weeks prior from her mother, who lived in Tennessee, and brought her to Georgia because they suspected abuse.
Investigator Young forwarded his findings to (then) District Attorney Daniel Craig, who immediately issued an indictment against the grandfather, Joseph Wallace.
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Even though Joseph Wallace had the opportunity to commit the crime during the short period he was left alone with Smith, Craig said he knew that he faced an uphill battle.
“You can know in your mind and in your heart who is responsible, but that doesn’t always mean you can provide the jury with enough evidence to reach a conclusion beyond any reasonable doubt,” Craig said.
In this case, Joseph Wallace did not have a clear motive for murdering his granddaughter.
According to Craig, the grandmother would not testify that her husband had a history of domestic violence.
Plus, authorities believed it was possible that the five year-old who lived with the Wallaces could have administered the fatal beating.
The grand jury declined to uphold the indictment. A source close to the case has speculated that grand jurors must have been torn on the question of whether Wallace would travel to Tennessee to save his granddaughter from abuse only to later beat her to death himself.
Craig, who already had the reputation of a bulldog prosecutor, wasn’t finished.
“I tried another tactic, which I had never used before and haven’t used since,” Craig said.
In an attempt to get the grandmother to break and testify against her husband, Craig issued an indictment for Mi Ja Wallace and indicted Joseph Wallace a second time.
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Craig could indict Joseph Wallace a second time because a grand jury investigation is not a the same thing as a trial. A grand jury true bill is simply a statement that sufficient evidence exists for the case to go to court. Grand juries, unlike petit (trial court) juries, do not decide guilt or innocence.
Craig’s strategy failed. Mi Ja Wallace did not buckle. She was willing to risk a trial and a possible conviction rather than point the finger at her husband.
Despite his best efforts, Craig found himself and his case floating about a mill pond in a boat with no oars or sails. He knew that he simply did not have the evidence to persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
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Craig said the case haunts him to this day, but he also said he and his team did everything in their power to bring about justice for Smith.
“I have never asked a jury to decide something that I was unsure about myself… ever,” Craig said.
Technically, the murder of Dimetria Smith remains an open investigation, but after 30 years, the case files are “missing” from the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office. The case will likely never be officially solved.
As Craig was quoted as saying in 2002, a conclusion to this case can only come about by “the grace of God.”
Scott Hudson is the Editorial Page Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com. Anna Porzio is a researcher and editorial assistant. Reach her at anna@theaugustapress.com.
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