PARAGOULD — Jurors sentenced Jerry Lard to death Saturday morning for the April 12, 2011, shooting death of a Trumann police officer.
It took the seven women and five men about an hour and 40 minutes to decide on the sentence — the first death sentence rendered in Greene County in at least 40 years, said Sheriff Dan Langston.
“I’ve never heard a jury speak any louder or clearer than this Greene County jury did today,” said 2nd Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington in a prepared statement after the verdict.
“The jury echoed the commitment of the community to protect those who protect us,” he said.
Defense attorney Katherine Streett would not comment.
“I can’t,” she said. “I just can’t.”
Lard, 38, of Trumann was convicted of capital murder Friday in the slaying of Trumann police officer Jonathan Schmidt after jurors deliberated for about 50 minutes.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said a tearful Donald Schmidt Sr., the officer’s father, after Lard was sentenced. “The healing has to begin. The healing will start now.”
The officer stopped a vehicle driven by Brian Keith Elumbaugh on Pine Street about 11:30 p.m. April 12, 2011. Lard was a passenger in the car.
Schmidt placed Elumbaugh under arrest for failing to appear in court after he violated the city’s dog-leash ordinance. After a dispatcher told Schmidt that authorities wanted Lard on a rape warrant, the officer walked around Elumbaugh’s car and opened the rear passenger door to talk to Lard.
Lard pointed his .25-caliber handgun at Schmidt through the open door and shot him in the chin.
Lard then got out of the vehicle and fired at Sgt. Corey Overstreet, who was assisting Schmidt during the traffic stop.
Overstreet was not injured.
Lard also shot Schmidt in the wrist and in the bullet-re- sistant vest. When Lard’s gun ran out of bullets, he picked up the fallen officer’s .40-caliber service weapon and shot Schmidt at close range as Schmidt lay against his patrol car and pleaded for his life.
Lard can be heard yelling on police video, “What the f you got, b*,” seconds before he fired the .40-caliber bullet into the right side of Schmidt’s face.
The shooting was captured on dashboard cameras in Schmidt’s and Overstreet’s patrol cars, and that video was a key element in convicting Lard, Ellington said.
Defense attorneys contended that Lard suffered from a mental deficiency and could not consciously plan out the slaying of Schmidt. Premeditation is a necessary component to prove capital murder.
Several physicians testified for Lard, saying he had damage to the frontal lobes of his brain brought on by childhood injuries and chronic methamphetamine use.
But prosecution witnesses countered that scans of Lard’s brain appeared to be normal.
“Our mental-health experts were most effective,” Ellington said. “The video was so obvious that Jerry Lard acted with the [premeditation] required for capital murder.”
Lard was also sentenced to life in prison for attempted capital murder against Overstreet and 10 years in prison for possession of methamphetamine. Circuit Judge Brent Davis ordered the sentences to run consecutively.
Lard showed no emotion as Davis read the sentences Saturday.
As deputies escorted him out of the courtroom, he turned and blew a kiss to his mother, Jackie Vaughn; his brother, Ricky Lard; and his daughter, Felicia Hamm, who were in the courtroom.
“The hardest thing I’ll do is go home and say my brother is on death row,” Ricky Lard said. “I’ll never see him walking free on the street again.”
The trial lasted nearly two weeks and was emotionally draining each day for the Schmidt family and their friends because it brought back the night of the shooting, said Andrea Schmidt, the slain officer’s wife.
“We went through that first day again every day in court,” she said. “It does give a finality to this, but I don’t know if I’ll ever have closure since Jonathan won’t be back.”
Davis held court Saturday after recessing the trial Friday evening after defense attorneys presented 21 witnesses who testified that Lard grew up in an abusive home that led to mental problems.
Defense attorneys had requested that the trial be moved to Greene County from Harrisburg in Poinsett County because of pretrial publicity.
On Saturday morning, attorneys presented their closing statements.
“If you kill him, you’ll create another set of innocent victims,” Streett told jurors while asking for mercy for Lard. “Don’t widen the circle of pain. Jerry’s family is no more guilty than they [Schmidt’s family] are.
“You have the power to limit the damage already done,” she said.
Ellington held a large photograph of a scan of Lard’s brain during his closing arguments. The photograph showed more brain activity on one side of Lard’s brain. Defense attorneys said it indicated brain damage.
But Ellington said one of the prosecution’s witnesses — an Emory University professor of neurology and psychology — testified Friday that the image was not accurate because Lard was standing at an angle when the “slice,” or image, was taken.
“You need to slice just a little bit deeper,” Ellington told jurors. “When you do, you’ll get a true and accurate picture of what really happened.”
Ellington ended his closing statements by playing the video of Schmidt’s shooting on a large television screen.
While waiting for jurors to deliberate the sentencing, Kathy Schmidt, the officer’s mother, recalled stories about her son.
She said that once, while he was not on duty as a police officer, he delivered pizzas for the family’s business in Trumann.
It wasn’t a good idea, she said.
“When Jonathan delivered the pizzas, people kept closing the doors when they saw him,” Kathy Schmidt said. “They recognized him and thought they’d be arrested. He came back and said, ‘This isn’t working. I’m scaring away your customers.’”
She said Schmidt also had compassion. When he responded to a call for an infant who died in its crib in Trumann, Schmidt performed CPR on the child while waiting for paramedics, knowing that the baby was already dead.
Kathy Schmidt said her son wanted the infant’s mother to have a few more moments of hope before learning that her baby had died.
After the sentence was announced and family members began leaving the courtroom, Ricky Lard and his mother sought out the officer’s parents and widow in the shadowy walkway of the courthouse.
The two families hugged tightly and cried openly.
Ricky Lard apologized for his brother’s actions and said he prayed daily for Schmidt’s family.
“I have no ill will towards them,” Andrea Schmidt later said.
Donald Schmidt Jr., the officer’s brother, noted that audio from the video of the shooting showed that Jonathan Schmidt was considerate during the fatal traffic stop. The officer can be heard asking Elumbaugh to turn his wrists when he handcuffed him so his wrists wouldn’t hurt.
“My brother was kind during that arrest,” said Donald Schmidt Jr. “He was the complete gentleman. My brother paid the ultimate price for doing good. Now Jerry Lard has to pay the ultimate price for doing evil.”
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/29/2012