By Jean Cole
jean@athensnews-courier.com
—
Federal charges are still a possibility for a man who came to Athens High School in May with a loaded shotgun and more ammunition in his pocket, officials said.
Limestone County District Attorney Kristi Valls confirmed Wednesday that Thomas Brian Smoak, 51, of 119 Coffman Circle may be facing federal charges in addition to being formally charged last week by a Limestone County grand jury with making a terrorist threat and possessing a deadly weapon on school grounds with the intent to do bodily harm.
Smoak, angry because Principal Chris Bolen suspended his son for using a racial slur toward another student, allegedly told his wife he was going to school. She called the school to warn Bolen that her husband was angry, had a gun and was coming to school. Police arrived ahead of Smoak and saw him enter the school’s driveway. Seeing the police, Smoak fled down Hobbs Street, where he was stopped. No one was injured.
Smoak, who was a nurse at Crestwood Hospital at the time, remains in the Limestone County Jail in lieu of posting a $1 million bail.
Hutto death
In a separate grand jury case, the charge against a Decatur woman accused of fatally shooting a Tanner man during the commission of a robbery has been upgraded.
The grand jury formally charged Deborah Kay Arriaga, 48, of 3516 Gordon Terry Parkway last week in the April 24 shooting death of Bryan Wayne Hutto, 43.
The charge was upgraded to capital murder due to evidence, discovered after Arriaga’s initial arrest, showing she robbed Hutto of cash, District Attorney Kristi Valls said.
“Details will have to come out in trial,” she added.
On the day of the shooting, neighbors in Swan Creek Mobile Home Park off U.S. 31 South found Hutto lying in the road and called for help at 12:20 p.m. After being shot with a .22-cailber handgun, Hutto had crawled from his mobile home and was crying for help when he was discovered. When Limestone County deputies arrived, Hutto told them “Deborah” shot him. He was transported to Athens-Limestone Hospital and then to Huntsville Hospital but died later in surgery. Investigators identified the shooter as Arriaga, a friend of Hutto’s. She admitted she shot Hutto while they were struggling inside his mobile home but she said the shooting resulted from an argument.
Arriaga is being held in the Limestone County Jail in lieu of posting a $500,000 bail.
