In the early hours of a January morning in 2018, the life of 38-year-old Joshua Todd Smith came to a violent end in a house in Stevenson, Alabama. An acquaintance, Brittany Smith, had picked him up the previous day after he called her saying he had nowhere to go. She allowed him to stay the night on her couch. However, the situation escalated, and in the pre-dawn hours of January 16th, Brittany Smith placed a 911 call to report a shooting.
When authorities arrived, they discovered Joshua Todd Smith unresponsive on the kitchen floor, having sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
The investigation that followed was complex. Brittany Smith, a mother of four, claimed that she had shot Joshua Todd Smith in self-defense. She alleged that he had become violent and had brutally assaulted her. Her brother, Chris, had come to her home to confront Joshua. According to Brittany's account, a physical altercation ensued between the two men, during which Joshua put her brother in a headlock. Fearing for her brother's life and her own, she said she grabbed a gun and opened fire.
Despite her claims of self-defense, Brittany Smith was arrested and charged with murder. Initially, her brother had told police that he was the one who shot Joshua, in what they believed was an attempt to protect his sister, thinking she wouldn't receive a fair trial in Jackson County. However, Brittany later admitted to being the shooter. A toxicology report would later show that Joshua Todd Smith had a combination of methamphetamine, amphetamines, Xanax, and alcohol in his system at the time of his death.
Brittany Smith's legal team pursued a defense under Alabama's 'Stand Your Ground' law, arguing that she was immune from prosecution because she reasonably believed deadly force was necessary to prevent death or serious harm to herself and her brother. A judge, however, denied this immunity, ruling that she did not credibly demonstrate the necessity of her actions. Facing a potential life sentence if convicted at trial, Brittany Smith ultimately accepted a plea deal. She pleaded guilty to murder and received a 20-year sentence. The agreement stipulated that she would serve 18 months in county jail, followed by 18 months of house arrest, with the remainder of the sentence to be served on probation.
