After a deliberating for more than six hours, a jury returned a verdict, finding George Smith guilty of intentional manslaughter and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony in the killing of Steven Oliver.
The trial began Monday afternoon with Box Butte County District Court Judge Travis O’Gorman presiding.
During the trial, Doug Warner called multiple witnesses to the event, including officers who responded to the scene on June 19, 2020, two people who were at the scene at the time of the stabbing and professional witnesses who offered testimony of their contribution to the investigation after Oliver’s death.
On the first day of the trial, one of the Alliance Police Department officers to take the stand was Tyler Sherlock. Sherlock described arriving at the scene with other officers following an EMS call regarding a stabbing. He said that when they arrived on scene, they saw a young man running toward them. With their guns drawn, they ordered him to the ground where he was handcuffed and detained. The man was identified as Joshua Taylor.
Sherlock said he also saw a woman, who was later identified as Patricia Taylor carrying two knives out of a residence. Officers ordered her to drop the knives, an order with which she complied, dropping the two knives in the grass. Sherlock said as officers were approaching the residence he saw a man on the ground and a woman trying to render aid.
“She had a white and blue striped towel on his chest and it appeared she was trying to render some sort of medical aid,” said Sherlock. “He was soaked in blood and his breathing was very labored, struggling, gasping for air. She was trying to get him to wake up.”
Sherlock, who served in the military, went to the man lying on the ground, who was later identified as Oliver, and began to render aid while the scene was secured for EMS personnel.
“I saw on his upper abdomen an area where there was a large puncture wound, approximately two inches in length. On his left chest, there was a smaller puncture wound, approximately one inch in length. I immediately took out a set of latex gloves and I created a chest seal on both wounds. I attempted to help with his breathing; common with wounds to the chest is the agonal breathing, which I described as gasping for air, struggling to breathe.”
Sherlock said after he applied the chest seal to the wounds, Oliver’s breathing improved. He attempted to wake Oliver up by implementing a sternum rub, but there was no response. According to Sherlock, the woman rendering aid, who was identified as Heather Kolodjay, indicated an open door of the south side of the residence and that the suspect was inside. When Sherlock looked inside the residence, he saw an elderly male sitting on a bench near the doorway. The man was identified as George Smith. Sherlock accompanied Smith to the hospital, after he was tased. Sherlock said he could smell the odor of alcohol on Smith. While staying with Smith at the hospital, Sherlock noted that he heard Smith say “I’m going to spend the rest of my life in prison.”
On the second day of the trial APD Sergeant Cody Buskirk took the stand and shared his account of the incident. He said that after the woman dropped the knives in the grass, he placed a chair that he found at the residence over them so they would not be disturbed. A photo of the knives taken at the scene was shown in the courtroom. One was identified as a kitchen knife and the other as an out the front open assisted open knife. As Buskirk made his way to the residence he saw Smith inside the doorway of the apartment. With his firearm drawn, he began giving verbal commands to Smith from outside the apartment. He said Smith was smoking a cigarette when he rose and began telling the officers to shoot him. Buskirk deployed his taser, after which he was able to get Smith under control. Buskirk said inside the apartment, he noticed droplets of blood on the floor, a bloody handprint on the wall near the door and a broken glass ashtray.
After providing more details of the investigation that followed, Buskirk was dismissed and Josh Taylor was called as the next witness. Taylor explained that he had gone to the residence around noon to ask Oliver to watch his dog, where he observed a bottle of Fireball Whiskey on a table and a case of beer.
When he returned to retrieve the dog, he said he did not go inside the residence because the dog was tied up in the back of the building. Taylor explained that he went to the residence a third time that day and observed Oliver crying and Smith still in the residence. He explained that he saw a smashed glass on the floor of the apartment and that he witnessed a verbal disagreement between Smith and Oliver about Oliver having a place to stay. He said he heard Oliver say that he was going outside to light a fire in the fire pit located on the lawn of the residence.
At that time, Taylor said he walked outside, under the impression that Oliver would accompany him. He said he stood outside with his back to the residence and while he was waiting he heard a noise.
“It was the worst sound I’ve heard in my life,” said Taylor.
When he turned to face the residence, he saw somebody’s elbow come through the doorway. He walked back to the doorway of the residence and said he locked eyes with Oliver, who was standing by the kitchen sink clutching his chest. He said Kolodjay came out of the bedroom and they assisted Oliver outside the residence. He explained that because he did not have his phone, he had to run to his residence and return to the scene. While he was returning to the scene, he saw his mother pulling into the driveway and told her, “George just stabbed Steve,” and asked for her help. He then called 911 asking for help and describing the stabbing before giving his mother the phone.
After providing more details about police arriving on scene, Josh Taylor was dismissed and Patricia Taylor was called as the next witness. The recording of the 911 call was played in the courtroom. When the phone was in Patricia’s possession, dispatch asked her about the location of the knife used in the stabbing. After some discussion in the call, Patricia could be heard telling someone, “Yeah, I know, dude, I know you stabbed him.” She told the dispatcher she retrieved the knife. On the stand, Patricia testified she was speaking to Smith. She said he said “I stabbed him.”
Patricia described picking up the knives from the kitchen counter using her fingertips to limit contact with them. She said she identified the black knife as belonging to Smith as he had shown it to her on a previous occasion.
Dr. Peter Schilke was the next witness to take the stand. He conducted the autopsy on Oliver. He described the damage from each of the puncture wounds. He said the wound located on his lower chest was approximately three inches deep and did not puncture any major organs. Dr. Schilke said the other wound on his upper chest penetrated approximately 4 9/16 inches and went through Oliver’s heart and also pierced his liver. Schilke also testified about conducting a toxicology screening on Oliver, which revealed his blood alcohol content to be .262. He said Oliver also tested positive for using marijuana.
Next, Heather Kolodjay took the stand to testify. She told prosecutor Doug Warner that Smith is her step father, and noted that he was at the residence, where Smith, Oliver, Jason Girard, who lived in the apartment above the apartment on the ground level, and she began drinking early that day. She also testified that members of the group had smoked marijuana.
Kolodjay explained that Girard left the apartment and she cooked a meal with Oliver. She said that after they finished cooking, she went to bed. She noted that Oliver and Smith were the only ones left in the apartment at the time she went to bed. She said she woke up hearing three voices but did not recognize the voices. When she heard scuffling and glass breaking, which is when she left the bedroom. She said when she left the bedroom she saw Oliver standing and holding his side and Smith sitting on the bench by the door.
Kolodjay said Oliver turned toward her and said, “George stabbed me,” and showed her the wound. She asked George about it, and she said that Smith said, “I stabbed Oliver.” She said Oliver had stumbled toward the door and she went to help him. She said she saw a black knife laying on the table and that she hid the knife on the table by sliding it behind some items on the table. The picture of the knives lying in the grass from where Patricia dropped them was shown in the courtroom, and Kolodjay identified the kitchen knife as her own and the other knife as belonging to Smith.
Kolodjay said Oliver had opened the screen door and went outside, which is when she hid the knife she saw on the table. She said she saw Josh walking toward the residence on his phone, which is when she told him to call 911. Kolodjay said Oliver, when they were outside, turned to her and asked her where Girard was. She said after she responded that he was upstairs, she heard a rustling noise inside the residence. She said she turned back into the house and saw Smith rummaging through a kitchen drawer. According to Kolodjay, when she asked what he was doing, Smith responded, “I need protection. I need something. I’m looking for a knife.” She said she told Smith to sit down, when he asked her if he needed to leave, to which she responded, “no.” She said she saw Smith light a cigarette and sit down.
Kolodjay said she went back outside where she saw Oliver standing and saw blood spreading from his wounds. She said that he started to fall and that she caught him and put pressure on the wounds.
From there, she described the police arriving on scene and tasing Smith.
During the cross examination, Smith’s attorney, Kelly Breen asked Kolodjay about inconsistencies between the testimony she gave in the courtroom and a statement that she gave to officers two days after the incident.
Warner asked Kolodjay about her mindset when she saw Oliver holding his side. She said she was scared.
APD Investigator David LaDuke took the stand after Kolodjay and testified to collecting evidence, including Smith’s clothing, which was sent to the state crime lab for testing. On the third day Brandi Porter, Forensic Scientist at the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab, testified to testing the samples that were sent to her, including Smith’s clothing and the two knives found at the scene. She said no blood was identified on the kitchen knife, but there was blood found on the out the front, assisted open knife. The DNA was tested and determined to be contributed by Oliver. Porter also testified to testing blood stains on Smith’s jeans, which she determined as most likely to be Oliver’s blood, based on the DNA.
The state rested their case after calling two more witnesses. George Smith testified about the incident before the closure of the defense’s case. Breen asked Smith about his military service and his training in using a knife for combat purposes. Breen asked Smith to demonstrate using a knife for both offensive and defensive purposes, which he did.
“I would not do the stab,” said Smith while demonstrating. “It’s too close of combat. When you’re that close in combat, you could go any which way. Ideally, you want to see what damage you do when you’re fighting with a knife.”
When asked about the incident on June 19, 2020, Smith said Kolodjay and Girard using his vehicle to transport items to a storage unit that he helped procure for Kolodjay. He said they had all been drinking. Smith said that due to head trauma he received while in the military he experiences grand mal seizures. He noted that he began to feel a seizure come on around 4:30 or 5 p.m., and that he went to lay down. He said he was coming out of the seizure around 7 p.m., though he was still experiencing some of the effects. He said he heard a lot of noise and glass crashing around the time he was coming out of his seizure.
He said he came out of the bedroom and sat on the bench by the door. He said nobody was in the house at the time, and he said he had a cigarette.
“You aren’t mentally coherent on a seizure,” Smith said. “It’s a bad thing.”
Breen asked about Smith seeing Patricia Taylor enter the apartment. He said he does not remember much about the incident. Breen asked him about the location of his knife, which was used in the incident. Smith said he kept the knife in the console of his car, which is where he last saw it.
Breen asked Smith whether he stabbed Oliver.
“No sir, I did not,” Smith responded. “I did not stab him and I did not kill him.”
Defense rested after Warner cross examined Smith. Closing arguments were presented on the morning of the fourth day of the trial. Warner said the jury members were given the option to find Smith guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter, or to not find him guilty. Warner asked the jury to find him guilty of murder based on the evidence presented, noting that being drunk does not limit a person’s responsibility.
Breen argued that the witnesses in the case were not credible because of inconsistencies in their testimony and statements given to police. He said the blood found on Smith’s jeans could have gotten there after being tased inside the residence and falling to the ground.
Warner emphasized that that Alliance Police Department completed a thorough investigation of the event. Warner countered Breen’s claim of inconsistencies with the fact that the witnesses were in a stressful situation, which could contribute to problems remembering the event clearly.
“You’ve got Mr. Smith making admissions,” said Warner. “You’ve got circumstantial evidence that he did it. There’s no other person that could have done it.”
The case was submitted to the jury at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday and the jury returned to the courtroom at 5:02 p.m. with a verdict, finding Smith guilty of intentional manslaughter and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony. The decision was unanimous. Sentencing was set for June, and a presentence investigation was ordered.
According to Clerk of the District Court Kevin Horn, the cost of the jury trial totaled $6,489.56, not including the expenses of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, who represented Smith, or the cost of security in the court for the four-day trial.