Vincent Smothers, the hitman already imprisoned on a series of convictions for murders in Detroit nearly two decades ago, was sentenced March 19 to another 14 to 58 months in prison for having a cell phone while incarcerated.
Although at this point, the nearly five-year sentence handed down by Muskegon County Circuit Judge Annette Rose Smedley is just an add-on to the multiple decades-long prison stints the 45-year-old Smothers is serving.
Smothers is serving a 52-to-100-year prison sentence in Muskegon County for a 2010 second-degree murder conviction involving the deaths of eight people. And in February, he was sentenced to 1 to 40 years in prison for obstruction of justice, a charge which he pleaded no contest to in December.
He will serve the sentences consecutively, according to Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office. Smothers’ murder sentence could end in 2060, at the earliest, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. Smothers would be 79 by then.
“This conviction and sentence make clear that those who attempt to obstruct justice will face consequences, and my office will continue to defend the integrity of our criminal justice system with the full weight of the law,” Nessel said in a statement.
According to Nessel’s office, prosecutors charged Smothers with obstruction of justice after he signed a false affidavit in May 2019 claiming new evidence to support another inmate’s request for a new trial. Shannon Anderson, 46, is serving 17-40 years in prison for a 2007 fatal shooting he committed at an Eastpointe beauty salon. The requested trial never took place.
Smothers, also known as “Vito,” has been featured in true crime programming for the killings, including being profiled in a 2016 episode of “Gangsters: America’s Most Evil.”
This isn’t the first time Smothers has factored into another legal case.
In 2016, Davontae Sanford was exonerated of a conviction for four murders that took place in Sept. 2007 in Detroit. Smothers signed an affidavit stating Sanford could not have committed the murders, because he did, accepting money to carry out “hits.” Sanford, who was 14 at the time the murders took place, later won a $7.5 million settlement for wrongful imprisonment from the city of Detroit.
Free Press reporter Tresa Baldas and Executive Editor Jim Schaefer contributed with prior reporting.
You can reach Arpan Lobo at alobo@freepress.com
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Convicted hitman Vincent Smothers gets more prison time
Reporting by Arpan Lobo, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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