Published: May 11, 2008 09:21 pm            

Double-shooting suspect dies in custody

PEARISBURG, Va. — A Giles County man who was charged Friday with two counts of attempted capital murder among other charges was found unresponsive Saturday evening at New River Regional Jail in Dublin, Va., and was later pronounced dead.

Randall Lee Smith, 54, of Pearisburg was discovered by regional jail personnel Saturday afternoon at about 5 p.m., lying unresponsive on his side on the floor of the jail, according to a press release issued late Saturday night by Lt. Ron Hamlin of the Giles County Sheriff’s Office.

“The correctional officer radioed for assistance and other staff members responded to the area (where Smith was being held) to assist,” Hamlin stated in a press release. Smith was transported to Pulaski Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 6:03 p.m., according to the press release. “Smith was being held in the medical area in a cell by himself,” according to the press release.

Smith was arrested Tuesday evening by Virginia State Police in connection with the double shooting of two Tazewell County men who were on a fishing trip in the Jefferson National Forest. The Tazewell men — Scott Johnson of Bluefield, Va., and Sean Farmer of Tazewell, Va. — were camping near the Walnut Flats picnic site in the Dismal area of Giles County. Johnson and Farmer were both wounded in the incident.

Smith allegedly left the scene in a 2000 Ford Ranger pickup truck that belonged to one of the victims. When a state trooper spotted the stolen vehicle on Sugar Run Road near Eggleston, Va., and pulled onto the road behind Smith, the suspect ran off the road, and flipped the vehicle. Smith was transported to Carilion Hospital in Roanoke, Va., where he was treated for injuries he received in the accident. The trooper recovered a gun at the scene.

“Carilion officers released him to our custody Friday evening,” Hamlin said. “We read him his rights, informed him that he was being charged with two counts of attempted capital murder, two counts of the use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and one count of grand larceny related to the theft of the pickup truck. After that, we transported him to the regional jail.”

Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of second degree murder in 1982 in connection with the May 1981 double homicide of Laura Susan Ramsay and Robert Mountford, both 27, and both of Maine. Ramsay and Mountford were both hiking the Appalachian Trail and were discovered in the same vicinity of the site of last week’s double shooting.

Well-known Southwest Virginia author, Jess Carr of Radford, Va., wrote about the 1981 homicides of the two hikers in a book titled “Murder on the Appalachian Trail” (1984). Smith was released from prison on parole in 1996, and has lived in Pearisburg since his release. Giles authorities contacted other area agencies a few days before the recent double-shooting to alert authorities that Smith was missing from his residence.

The condition of the two gunshot victims was not immediately available Sunday afternoon.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

        

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