Kathy N. Smith, a 40-year-old White woman from Clarkesville, Georgia, died on February 22, 2015, in a burst of violence that shattered a home and left a family and community reeling. Public reports say Smith was at her residence in the Winding Stair subdivision that Sunday evening when her ex-husband, Anthony Giaquinta, arrived. Around 7:30 p.m., a 911 call brought Habersham County deputies to the house after reports of a domestic dispute and gunfire.
When law enforcement got there, they found Smith dead in the garage, and what began as a response to a deadly domestic incident quickly turned into a wider, more chaotic scene as shots were fired at the responding officers.
Investigators publicly identified Giaquinta as the suspected gunman. He was not a stranger to the family or to local law enforcement; reports said he was Smith’s ex-husband, a former Habersham County deputy, and a former K-9 handler. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation details carried by local and regional news outlets, officers believe Giaquinta killed Smith and also shot Steven Thomas Singleton, who was described in reporting as Smith’s boyfriend or close companion. One of Smith’s teenage daughters was inside the home when the violence erupted and managed to escape without physical injury, a detail that gives the case an especially haunting edge.
The scene did not end with Smith’s killing. After deputies entered the house, authorities said they were ambushed. Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell was shot once, and Deputy Bill Zigan was shot multiple times. Both officers returned fire, and a massive manhunt unfolded through the neighborhood as residents were warned to stay inside. Later that night, investigators found Giaquinta dead outside the residence, along with Singleton. Subsequent reporting said investigators believed Giaquinta died from gunfire during the exchange with law enforcement rather than by suicide, even though early accounts described the episode as an apparent murder-suicide.
As for arrests and charges, there was no murder prosecution in Smith’s death because the man identified as the suspect, Giaquinta, died at the scene. Reporting does, however, show a troubling earlier history: the GBI said Giaquinta had been terminated from the Habersham County Sheriff’s Office in June 2013 after allegations of domestic violence, and one report said he had previously been arrested after allegedly striking Smith, though that charge was later dropped at her request. Other coverage noted there were no restraining orders in effect at the time of the killings. In the end, the public record points to Smith’s death as part of a fatal domestic violence case in which the suspected killer was identified quickly, but no trial or conviction ever followed because he did not survive the confrontation.
