Jury finds suspect in murder-for-hire trial guilty

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) –  A jury in Pitt County has found James Edward Smith guilty on felony solicitation to commit first degree murder.

Superior Court Judge J.C. Cole sentenced Smith to six to eight years in prison.

The 36-year-old was on trial accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill his wife, offering $15,000 to a man named Clay Edwards. Edwards reported the offer to Crime Stoppers.

Police immediately began to investigate and said their efforts, including an undercover operation, allowed them to collect enough evidence to support the caller’s claims. Smith was arrested within 12 hours of the call.

This morning final arguments were presented Judge Cole.

District attorney Anthony Futrell presented his case for the state, claiming Smith is guilty based on audio evidence of conversations discussing how to kill his wife.The discussions involved putting a gun on the inside of her car to make it appear as a suicide.

Les Robinson, attorney for defendant, James Smith, argued that he is innocent, saying Smith has good character and would never intend to murder his wife after 13 years of marriage. Robinson also claimed Edwards planned the whole incident, citing Edwards’ past record of larceny, fraud and unemployment. Robinson suggested Edwards would try anything for money.

At 11:35 a.m., the verdict sheets were delivered to the jury. “All of the evidence helped a lot,” said juror Janice Edwards. “Because once we saw the video, that was it for me really. He was guilty.”

The jury came back with a decision within 30 minutes. Judge Cole announcing the guilty verdict and sentencing.

Greenville Police Chief Mark Holtzman said, “A murder for hire case is very, very rare. Most officers will never even see one in their career, I can only think of one other one in my career, nearly 30 years of doing this.”

Holtzman added that the department had no prior signs of domestic violence or disturbances from the couple.

“It was an absolute shock to the family and to the wife,” Holtzman said. “They did not see this coming, we did not discover any history of domestic violence for this family or calls of service between these two, so it really was a case out of the blue. We wanted to make sure we got it right.”