Troy Cobb, a 20-year-old White/Caucasian man, was killed on October 28, 2014, inside the Bancroft, West Virginia, mobile home he shared with Jacob Smailes. The shooting occurred at Old Ferry Trailer Park, also described in reports as Old Ferry Street Park off First Avenue. Authorities were called at about 3:15 that afternoon after what was initially reported to emergency dispatchers as an accidental shooting. Smailes, Cobb's roommate, made the 911 call and told authorities that he had accidentally shot Cobb.
The first moments after the gunfire reinforced the initial appearance of a terrible accident. Neighbor Tiffany Loudermilk heard someone outside screaming and went to see what had happened. She said the man told her he had accidentally shot his roommate. Loudermilk rushed inside the trailer and found Cobb gravely wounded. She attempted to help him by applying pressure to the injury, which she described as being around his eye, but there was little she could do.
She remained with Cobb as he died so that he would not be alone.
As Putnam County sheriff's deputies began interviewing the people who had been inside the residence, however, their understanding of the shooting changed. Investigators said Cobb and Smailes had been arguing before the gun was fired. One later report said the dispute concerned bills. An eyewitness inside the trailer gave deputies an account that investigators believed was inconsistent with an accidental discharge. According to authorities, that witness described the argument escalating until Smailes was holding a gun to Cobb's head, followed by the fatal shot. Another report described the weapon as a large-caliber handgun.
Smailes continued to maintain that the shooting had been accidental, but investigators concluded otherwise based on the witness statement, physical evidence and their investigation of the scene. Deputies arrested Smailes and charged him with first-degree murder. He was initially lodged in the Western Regional Jail without bond. In December 2014, a Putnam County judge set his bond at $300,000 and ordered that he be monitored by GPS if released.
The prosecution continued to treat Cobb's death as an intentional homicide. In July 2015, a Putnam County grand jury indicted Smailes on a charge of first-degree murder, formally advancing the case toward trial. The indictment alleged that Smailes had shot and killed Cobb following the argument at their Bancroft trailer. Smailes nevertheless maintained his position that he had not intentionally killed his roommate.
Nearly three years after Cobb's death, the case went before a jury. On July 27, 2017, jurors rejected the first-degree murder charge as the ultimate verdict but also rejected the contention that the shooting carried no criminal responsibility. Instead, they found Smailes guilty of the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter. The verdict meant he was not convicted of the first-degree murder originally alleged by prosecutors, but he was convicted of unlawfully causing Cobb's death during the confrontation.
On September 15, 2017, Smailes was sentenced to 15 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter, the maximum term reported for the offense in his case. The sentence brought the criminal prosecution stemming from the fatal confrontation to a conclusion almost three years after Cobb was shot. What was first presented in a frantic 911 call as an accidental shooting ultimately resulted in an arrest for murder, a first-degree murder indictment, a jury trial, a voluntary manslaughter conviction and a 15-year prison sentence.
