N.M. State Police Officer's Killer Sentenced to Life: 'Act of Evil'

By Julia Marnin

Source The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)

Jaremy Smith smiled when he stepped into the courtroom to plead guilty to killing New Mexico State Police Officer Justin Hare, who he was accused of shooting three times in his head and neck along an interstate, according to federal court filings.

Now Smith, a resident of South Carolina, where authorities say he killed a paramedic less than 48 hours before fatally shooting Hare in March 2024, was sentenced to life in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Mexico said in an April 21 news release.

His attorneys didn’t return McClatchy News’ request for comment April 22.

In filings ahead of sentencing, his counsel argued that he was remorseful over Hare’s death.

But prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents that “Smith is a remorseless killer beyond any meaningful prospect of rehabilitation.”

By pleading guilty on Jan. 17 to charges stemming from Hare’s death, Smith, of Marion, South Carolina, agreed to a life sentence, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, McClatchy News previously reported.

“Jaremy Smith, in a cruel and calculated act of evil, ambushed Officer Justin Hare, executing him and leaving him to die alone in the cold after stealing his patrol vehicle,” New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler said in a statement.

Smith was sentenced on April 21, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He won’t be eligible for parole, as there’s no parole for defendants prosecuted in federal court.

Officer offered to help

Hare had served as a New Mexico State Police officer for five years when he was dispatched to help Smith, who was seen waving down cars on the shoulder of Interstate 40 in Quay County, New Mexico, at 4:48 a.m. on March 15, 2024, according to prosecutors.

The car Smith was driving, with South Carolina license plates, had a flat tire, prosecutors said.

At 5:04 a.m., Hare encountered Smith, who walked up to the passenger side of Hare’s police cruiser and mentioned his flat tire.

In response, Hare offered to help bring Smith into town, according to court documents.

After about 20 seconds of them talking, “a single gunshot rang out,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.

Smith shot Hare in the head, then shot him two more times and got in his police cruiser, according to court documents.

Smith’s encounter with Hare was captured on dashcam and lapel footage, according to prosecutors. Smith is seen in this image after prosecutors said he shot Hare. Government's sentencing memorandum

With Hare inside the vehicle, wounded, Smith drove off before abandoning Hare on the side of the road minutes later, according to prosecutors.

Smith crashed Hare’s cruiser into shrubbery shortly afterward, in Guadalupe County, and left the vehicle, prosecutors said.

Before the crash, Hare’s patrol vehicle sent out a distress signal, leading to an officer finding the cruiser with no one inside, according to prosecutors.

The officer ultimately found Hare, who was alive, prosecutors said. But Hare died of his injuries at Trigg Memorial Hospital in Tucumcari at 7:21 a.m. that morning, prosecutors said.

The motive

Smith was on the run from South Carolina when Hare encountered him, prosecutors said.

The motive for killing Hare, according to prosecutors, was to “avoid arrest on an equally brutal murder.”

Smith abducted and killed Phonesia Machado-Fore, a local first responder in Marion County, South Carolina, before shooting Hare, authorities said, WBTW reported.

He shot her to death with a handgun that he stole from her roommate, federal prosecutors said.

Afterward, he left South Carolina and drove through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas before arriving in New Mexico, according to prosecutors.

This image shows Smith’s drive from Georgia to New Mexico, according to prosecutors. Government's sentencing memorandum

Smith and Machado-Fore, who was 52 years old, met through her roommate, who was romanitcally inovlved with Smith, prosecutors wrote in sentencing documents.

Her body was found “with two blood-soaked bandanas tied around her eyes and plastic packaging tape around her mouth and jaw” in a field in Nichols, South Carolina, the day Smith killed Hare, according to prosecutors.

“She had been shot once in the back of the head execution style, still wearing her pajamas and house slippers,” prosecutors said.

Seventeen charges are pending against Smith in connection with Machado-Fore’s death, WPDE-TV reported.

Lawyers say he has remorse

Smith’s defense counsel argued in a filing dated March 13, ahead of sentencing, that he has a “tremendous amount” of remorse over Hare’s death.

His attorneys acknowledged how, as noted by prosecutors, “Smith can sometimes be seen with a big grin.”

His family, according to Smith’s attorneys, has said “Smith has worn that same grin throughout his entire life” and “would grin as a response to a number of different situations.”

“He grinned when he was happy and when he was sad, or mad. Mr. Smith also smiles when he gets nervous,” his attorneys wrote in court documents. “It is unclear to counsel at this point if Mr. Smith’s grinning is a nervous response to stressful situations or representative of an ongoing mental health ailment.”

“What is clear, however, is that Mr. Smith is extremely remorseful over his actions surrounding John Doe’s death.”

Smith’s attorneys contended he had remorse after the government argued the opposite in its sentencing memorandum, in which prosecutors called him an “unrepentant murderer.”

Two days after Hare’s death, Smith was apprehended at an Albuquerque gas station, according to prosecutors.

He ultimately pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in death, using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, kidnapping resulting in death, being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, and possession of a stolen firearm, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Ryan Ellsion commended Hare as a hero “who saw someone in need and selflessly stepped in to help” and then “paid the ultimate price.”

“We honor his memory by ensuring that Jaremy Smith will never again be able to endanger the lives of others,” Ellsion said.

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