Smith gets ten years for attack

An Amarillo man was sentenced to ten years in prison last Thursday, August 21, for his role in attacking a local woman last year.

Tyler Lee Smith entered a plea of guilty when the 100th Judicial District Court met in Childress. He was convicted for the second degree felony offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 10 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

“This defendant used a knife during an attack on his own girlfriend causing her serious injuries which almost took her life,” said District Attorney Luke Inman. “Due to the use of the knife in this offense, he will have to complete at least five years of his sentence before becoming parole eligible.”

The crime occurred in the early hours of November 3, 2013, when 17-year-old Shantel Harris was severely beaten and stabbed in the neck in Clarendon’s North Ward park while walking home from a birthday party. She later identified her attackers as Smith and Devonte Hardaway of Clarendon.

“Domestic violence, like this case, is taken seriously by law enforcement in the 100th Judicial District and this office,” said Inman. “We recently hosted a domestic violence seminar for law enforcement in Wellington that emphasized going forward with domestic assault cases, even when you don’t have the support of the victim like we lacked in this case.”

Smith, age 20 of Amarillo, was indicted by a Donley County Grand Jury on May 14, 2014. The trial had been scheduled for August 26 in Donley County.

Inman prosecuted the case for the State of Texas with the Honorable Judge Stuart Messer presiding.

Pursuant to the plea Smith is required to pay $398 in court costs and a $2,000 fine.

Hardaway accepted a plea agreement earlier this year.