South Bay Man Gets Eight-Year Sentence for Trying to Run Over Federal Officer

LOS ANGELES, CA - A Carson man was sentenced Monday to eight years in federal prison for trying to run over a deputy U.S. marshal who was attempting to arrest him for failing to abide by the terms of his release in a narcotics case.

Keith Leon Smith, 47, pleaded with the judge for "leniency," asking to be allowed to go home and "be a father" to his teenage children.

U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner told Smith -- a self-described lifelong drug addict -- that both he and the deputy could have been killed.

"You're really lucky on two grounds -- that there's not a police officer out there dead and you could've been dead," the judge said.

Smith was found guilty in January of one felony count of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly and dangerous weapon.

According to evidence presented at trial, deputy U.S. marshals went to a home on East 220th Street in Carson on March 11, 2015, to arrest Smith on a two-year-old bench warrant.

Smith was wanted because he had violated the terms of his supervised release after serving more than seven years in prison for being convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine.

While conducting surveillance, the deputies saw Smith leaving the home, get into a minivan and drive away. The officers, in several vehicles, followed Smith and executed a traffic stop.

As the officers approached the minivan and identified themselves as law enforcement officers, Smith reversed his vehicle toward some of the marshals' cars. Smith then suddenly accelerated his vehicle toward one of the deputy marshals, who was in front of the minivan. The officer fired his weapon at the windshield and fell backward.

Smith briefly stopped the vehicle as the shots hit the windshield, and then accelerated toward the deputy on the ground. The officer was able to jump out of the way of the minivan and fire several shots at the vehicle.

According to court documents, the marshal "believes that he would be dead if he had not stumbled out of the way of defendant's oncoming vehicle."

Smith sped away as the officers gave chase and was able to elude capture that day. However, deputies with the Los Angeles sheriff's department located Smith's minivan the next day and took him into custody.

During a subsequent interview with sheriff's deputies, Smith said he did not stop for the marshals because he did not want to go back to prison, according to the evidence presented at trial.

Smith told the court today that he has "struggled with drug addiction my entire life."

In arguing for a prison sentence of less than five years, defense attorney Armilla Staley-Ngomo told the judge that her client's meth addiction led to his legal problems.

"A long prison sentence ... isn't going to curb his addiction," she said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anil Antony recommended a nine-year prison term, based on the "bodily injury" -- including and sprains and abrasions -- suffered by the deputy U.S. marshal who had been trying to arrest Smith, noting the lawman "could've been seriously injured or killed."

After imposing sentence, which includes residential drug treatment following release from prison, Klausner offered some final words to the defendant.

"It's going to be a hard battle and, hopefully, you'll make it," the judge said.

--City News Service, photo via Shutterstock