Douglas Mark Smith, 68, continues to profess his innocence after being accused of killing two people during a daytime robbery of a downtown Cheyenne coin shop in 2015.
Douglas Mark Smith, 68, pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree murder in the 2015 shooting deaths of two men during a daytime robbery of a downtown Cheyenne coin shop.
Smith is accused of killing the then-owner of The Coin Shop, Dwight Brockman, 67, and his friend George Manley, 76, during that year’s Frontier Days.
The brazen nature of the murders left many in Cheyenne shocked. Authorities say Brockman and Manley were shot multiple times in the head during the robbery.
Smith had long been a witness in the case, but it wasn’t until authorities interviewed him again in 2023 that serious inconsistencies in his recount of the event started to emerge, as well as new evidence discovered against him. He was arrested June 25 in California.
Authorities are accusing him of leading investigators in the wrong direction immediately after the murder and the nine years that followed.
During a court hearing earlier this month, a Cheyenne police detective testified that neither Smith nor the area around the Coin Shop was searched for a gun after the murder.
Still No Bond
Since his arrest, Smith, a citizen of Canada, remains at the Laramie County Detention Center with no bond, a status typically reserved for only the most serious of charges and defendants who are seen as extreme flight risks.
The prosecution has 45 days to confirm whether it will seek the death penalty in the case, although Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackle already told Cowboy State Daily she doesn’t not expect to do so.
A Dec. 3 trial date has been set for Smith’s case, presided over by Judge Steven Sharpe.
The above is the detailed content of Douglas Mark Smith Pleads Not Guilty to 2015 Cheyenne Coin Shop Murders. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!