CLARKSVILLE -- Johnson County sheriff's deputies weren't told that Fred Kauffeld was armed when they went looking for him in the dark early-morning hours of May 15, 2015.
Less than an hour later, Reserve Deputy Sonny Smith was dead from a .22-caliber bullet that entered his collar bone area, ricocheted off a rib and went through his lung, causing the 42-year-old father of four to bleed to death on a rural Johnson County road.
Kauffeld, 52, is accused of shooting Smith and went on trial Tuesday before a jury of six men and six women.
He is charged with two counts of capital murder, two counts of attempted capital murder because a two-person K-9 team was in the line of fire, and one count of burglary.
One capital murder count, Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons told jurors in the state's opening statement, accuses Kauffeld of killing a law enforcement officer working in line of duty. The second count accuses Kauffeld of killing Smith in the immediate flight from a burglary under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.
Gibbons told jurors that Smith and Deputy Curtis Bishop were called to 1222 County Road 1723 about 1 a.m. May 15, 2015, on a call that Billy Nobles' home had been burglarized.
On their way, they found a pickup with flat front tires. A license plate check found it belonged to Kauffeld.
Nobles showed deputies a shattered glass door and said several items were missing, Gibbons said.
The department's K-9 unit, consisting of Raymond and Sue Christian, was called in. While Bishop investigated the burglary scene, Gibbons said, Smith went with the Christians to try to track the burglar.
Gibbons said Nobles left out several pieces of information. Nobles didn't tell deputies that he knew Kauffeld was the burglar and that Nobles had confronted Kauffeld in Nobles' home earlier that night. Nobles didn't tell them he and Kauffeld had been feuding over a woman the past few months, or that he had found Kauffeld's pickup and slashed the front tires.
Nobles also didn't tell deputies that Kauffeld was armed with a .22-caliber rifle.
The K-9 team and Smith were searching in the pitch dark on a road when Smith thought he detected movement just off the road, Gibbons said. Smith yelled "put your hands up" and was immediately fired on. He tried to gather himself, as Gibbons put it, and was able to fire off 10 rounds from his .45-caliber pistol before falling dead.
Gibbons said investigators found five spent .22-caliber rounds at the scene.
The Christians heard gunfire whiz by their heads and hit the ground. Raymond Christian yelled that they were from the sheriff's office, and Kauffeld surrendered, Gibbons said.
Kauffeld's attorney, Bill James of Little Rock, told jurors in his opening statement that Smith never identified himself as a deputy before firing first at Kauffeld, who he said was sleeping behind a tree. Kauffeld returned fire in the dark.
James told jurors that Kauffeld believed Nobles had recruited men to find and beat him.
James said Kauffeld and Nobles were fighting over a woman, Nancy Deatherage, who they wooed back and forth from each other.
On May 15, 2015, James said, Deatherage had called Kauffeld and complained that Nobles had beaten her. He went to Nobles' home and picked up Deatherage and her possessions and took her to his home.
James said Kauffeld went back to Nobles' home to pick up more or Deatherage's possessions.
Nobles came home and later called the sheriff's office and reported the burglary.
Testimony begins at 9 a.m. today.
State Desk on 05/25/2016