Aaron “Cody” Smith Sentenced To 14 Years In Prison In Death Of Greg Gunn

Aaron “Cody” Smith, a former Montgomery police officer, has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for the death of #GregGunn.

On Wednesday, Smith was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in prison for fatally shooting 59-year-old #GregoryGunn back in 2016.

Manslaughter is a class B felony that can result in a person being sentenced to in between two and 20 years. While the sentence was less than the maximum, the prosecutors say they feel justice was served. The jury was also given the option of giving Smith a lesser sentence.

“We have worked tirelessly, many hours in making sure that the gun family received justice. And I think today, they received that justice by seeing him being escorted back to a jail cell,” said Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey. Bailey went on to say that the death wasn’t by accident or “in the heat of the moment,” it was intentional. “This was an officer who purposefully did not turn on his body cam, did not turn on his car camera, and went out there with the reason, with the intent of harassing a citizen that night in hopes that he could make a statistic,” he said.

Defense attorney Mickey McDermott said Smith believes he was being targeted in this case. “He believes he’s still innocent. He believes he still operated that night within the boundaries of his sworn duties as a police officer,” McDermot said. McDermot says they intend to file an appeal and are currently seeking an appeal bond that would allow Smith to be out of prison while the appeal is processing through the justice system.

Smith fatally shot Gun during a field interview on McElvey Street on Feb. 25, 2016. Smith testified that the district was “getting torn up with burglaries” and that his lieutenant told him to “stop everything that moved” in his district. Police arrested Smith on March 2, 2016, following an outcry over Gunn’s death. Several months later, in November, Smith was indicted on murder. He resigned from the Montgomery Police Department following his conviction.