Two arrested in stabbing death of Ashley Smith's husband
By The Associated Press
Posted 6:00AM on Thursday, June 23, 2005
<p>Two men have been arrested in the 2001 stabbing death of the husband of Ashley Smith, the woman who has been praised for leading authorities to Atlanta courthouse shooting suspect Brian Nichols.</p><p>The men, who were arrested Wednesday, are accused of killing Daniel "Mack" Smith at an Augusta area apartment complex, the Columbia County sheriff's office said.</p><p>Barry Keith Tabor Jr., 24, of Augusta and Cory Blaine Coggins, 23, of Grovetown were arrested without incident after a grand jury indicted them for murder earlier in the day, said Maj. Rick Whitaker of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.</p><p>The two were being held without bond at the Columbia County Detention Center, Whitaker said early Thursday morning.</p><p>The arrests came after witnesses came forward with new testimony in the case, Whitaker said. Whitaker said he did not know if the publicity Ashley Smith has received played a role in the new leads but that "it may have." Some of the witnesses came forward after the Atlanta courthouse shootings, he said.</p><p>Ashley Smith was taken hostage in her apartment by the man suspected of killing three people in the Atlanta courthouse rampage and later a federal agent while he was on the run. The 26-year-old mother, waitress and student said she relied on her calm personality and spiritual upbringing to make it through the seven-hour ordeal.</p><p>Daniel Smith, 23, was stabbed in the heart four years ago during a brawl outside Applecross Apartments in Martinez. Witnesses said his wife was left screaming for help and holding him in her arms as he lay dying.</p><p>The next day, Tabor and Jairo Humberto Lopez were charged with voluntary manslaughter. But a magistrate judge later dropped the charge against Lopez for lack of evidence, and Tabor was never indicted.</p><p>Ashley Smith left the area after her husband's death, moving to Norcross in suburban Atlanta to live with her mother.</p><p>By March, she had finished six months of a medical assistant course, was working two jobs and had moved into a new apartment, where Nichols showed up early in the morning of March 12.</p><p>Police say Smith was held hostage at the Gwinnett County apartment before she convinced the suspect to allow her to leave so she could see her young daughter. Smith then immediately placed the 911 call that led to Nichols' arrest.</p><p>The victim's brother, Joel Smith, said he was informed Wednesday that two men were indicted. He said he got a call from Ashley Smith about it around 9:30 p.m.</p><p>"It's good news," Joel Smith told The Augusta Chronicle. "I knew it was going to come the night I found out that Ashley was the one that that happened to in Atlanta. God spoke to me and told me it was going to happen."</p><p>Ashley Smith was given $70,000 by Gov. Sonny Perdue and officials from other agencies who offered rewards in the courthouse shootings case in a March 24 ceremony at the Capitol in Atlanta. Later, Smith was greeted with standing ovations in both houses of the Legislature.</p>