Fleming Island's January 6 Defendant Asks That His Trial Be Moved to Jacksonville
Marcus Smith Cites Fairness, Financial Burden on Family
The January 6 defendant from Fleming Island is asking for a change of venue for his upcoming trial on charges that carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison. Defense lawyers argued that the timing of former president Trump’s upcoming immunity case before the Supreme Court will make a fair trial for their client impossible.
Marcus Smith, 47, was indicted in Washington D.C. on a felony offense of destruction of property and aiding and abetting. According to the indictment, the damage Smith did to a door at the U.S. Capitol cost more than $1,000 to repair. The amount is an element of the felony charge.
Smith was also charged with several misdemeanors: Entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.
Smith, a home-maintenance contractor, is one of 11 people from Northeast Florida and 1,309 nationwide charged in connection with the Capitol riot. Nine of the other 10 have been adjudicated with five sentenced to prison. Smith was taken into custody by a Clay County deputy in January, turned over to the FBI and then released on bail.
Considered indigent, Smith has been assigned lawyers from the federal Public Defenders Office in Nevada to represent him. They asked the D.C. court to move the trial to U.S. District Court in Jacksonville because of the distance from Smith’s home, “around 700 miles and an 11-hour car ride from Washington.”
Smith’s lawyers argued that he is the sole breadwinner for his family so when attends hearings or trial itself, he will lose income and miss out on job opportunities. “Being able to work while he’s in trial, or at least cut down on expenses, means his family will be able to eat and not be placed in financial instability while Mr. Smith defends himself,” his lawyers wrote.
Their principal argument, however, was that Smith was unlikely to receive a fair trial in Washington:
For most D.C. residents, the (January 6) date is indelibly engraved in their minds as a date where the nation’s capital was under attack. The personal impact of this event on the D.C jury venire, will likely result in a biased jury pool, effectively precluding Mr. Smith from receiving a fair trial.
The saturation of this charged and inflammatory reporting in this District is so substantial that it would be surprising to identify any potential jurors not exposed to the coverage. One only need look to the Washington Post comments section to observe the inflammatory attitudes of its readers to convict defendants who are still pending trial. Certainly, Mr. Smith is not one of the notorious January 6th defendants—he didn’t punch a police officer, use a taser, or commit seditious conspiracy. But Mr. Smith will be linked to those who did commit those crimes. The sins of other, more culpable, and more recognizable January 6th defendants will cast a long shadow over this trial. Therefore, it does not matter if Mr. Smith is not a recognizable name, or if he didn’t commit violence against the police. He will be damned as “one of them” all the same.
Worse, the jury pool will likely be especially agitated against Trump supporters, Smith’s lawyers said, because the former President’s immunity case will likely be decided by the Supreme Court in May, just before Smith’s scheduled trial date.
No defendant has thus far succeeded in getting a change of venue, which is why so many have opted out of a jury trial. They’ve chosen “bench trials,” which is when a case is decided by a judge alone.
Trump himself has said he would seek a change of venue for his trial on charges of trying to overturn a lost election, but almost no one believes he will succeed in moving the case. Even the “Boston Bomber” of Boston Marathon fame was unable to have his case heard outside the city where he and his brother committed their crimes.
Of all the January 6 cases heard thus far, only 13 have either had charges dismissed or were found innocent.