In the early morning hours of March 5, 2015, a disabled vehicle sitting sideways on the 3200 block of Lebanon Church Road in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, became the scene of a grim discovery. Police were dispatched to the location around 3:30 a.m. and found the body of 19-year-old Garrick Marshman, a male from North Braddock, in the back seat of the car. An autopsy would later confirm that Marshman, who was African American, had died from multiple gunshot wounds to his trunk. Investigators found six 9mm shell casings inside the Toyota Camry where his body was located.
The investigation into the death of Garrick Marshman moved swiftly. Allegheny County Police homicide detectives identified 20-year-old Deandre Smith of Braddock as the person responsible for the shooting. Smith was arrested on the evening of March 5, 2015, and charged with homicide and a weapons violation. At the time of his death, Marshman himself was facing legal troubles, with a formal arraignment on drug and weapons charges scheduled for the week after he was killed.
In June of 2016, Deandre Smith, then 21, pleaded guilty to a charge of third-degree murder in the death of Garrick Marshman. In exchange for his guilty plea, Common Pleas Judge Jill Rangos sentenced Smith to a term of 20 to 40 years in prison.
