Jason Smoot II
February 23, 2015
UPDATE****** Jan 26, 2019
A Killeen man was sentenced in the 264th Judicial District Court after pleading guilty to two aggravated robberies and for shooting and killing, in an apparent accident, a fellow teenager in 2015.
Anthony Wayne Nash III, 21, on Friday “was sentenced to 10 years in prison on each of the aggravated robbery cases. Additionally Nash was sentenced to 2 years in prison for the state jail offense of criminal negligent homicide,” said Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza.
Nash was 17 years old when he shot and killed 17-year-old Jason Smoot II of Harker Heights on Feb. 23, 2015.
Since her son’s death in Killeen more than two years ago, Geana Brown has longed for an answer. Now, she’s worried that time could run out before charges against anyone are brought up.
Brown is the mother of Jason Smoot II, who was found dead at the age of 17 in an apartment in the 2200 block of Andover Drive. Smoot was found dead with a gunshot wound on Feb. 23, 2015, and at first, Killeen police said that it was a self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, the initial autopsy report from the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences at Dallas listed the death as “pending.”
Later, that cause of death was ruled a homicide, the staff at Justice of the Peace Bill Cooke’s office confirmed Monday.
Brown said the last she heard from the Bell County District Attorney’s office, it was awaiting forensics evidence. But that was over a year ago, and she’s not sure why nothing has been done since.
“I have no recourse with these prosecutors, and to me, I kind of feel like it’s just another black kid that got killed, and they’re just sitting on their ass,” she said.
Brown said that from talking to Killeen Police Department detectives assigned to the case, she believes there were two people present at the apartment with her son, and that one of them accidentally pulled the trigger. Killeen police spokesman Alex Gearhart confirmed on Thursday that there is a suspect in the case. He would not release a name without charges being filed, however.
“The case has been forwarded to the District Attorney’s office, but a complaint has not been issued,” he said.
According to Brown, that suspect is currently in jail for another crime.
Bell County DA Henry Garza declined comment for this story.
“In regards to your question on the death of Jason Smoot, we cannot comment on a pending investigation,” Kathy Hogue, the office manager for Garza, said in an email Monday.