In the wooded expanse near the Tippah County-Alcorn County line in Mississippi, the life of 32-year-old off-duty State Trooper Kenneth Joshlin Smith was tragically cut short. On the night of September 30, 2018, Smith was with a group of friends in an area known as Hatchie Bottom. The gathering took a fatal turn after an encounter with a man named Troy Anthony Eaton.
Eaton, who was 43 at the time and from Rienzi, had arrived at the gathering and reportedly began acting erratically.
Witnesses later testified that Eaton was high on methamphetamine and was attempting to sell the drug. Trooper Smith, though off-duty, approached Eaton and identified himself as a law enforcement officer, asking him to leave the area. Though it seemed the situation was resolved, Eaton later confronted Smith and his brother-in-law, Rickie Dale Vick. Eaton, sitting in his vehicle, pulled out a gun and shot Smith in the face, killing him at the scene. He then shot Vick, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
Immediately after the shooting, Troy Anthony Eaton fled into the surrounding woods, sparking a manhunt involving state, local, and federal authorities. The search concluded around 5:30 a.m. when Eaton surrendered to law enforcement. He was arrested and subsequently charged with murder and aggravated assault. Initially, he faced a capital murder charge, but it was later reduced because it was determined that Smith was not on duty at the time of his death.
During his trial, the jury was presented with conflicting accounts of the events, but ultimately found Troy Anthony Eaton guilty of second-degree murder for the death of Kenneth Joshlin Smith and aggravated assault for the shooting of Rickie Dale Vick. He was sentenced to a total of 40 years in prison, with 30 years to serve. An appeal of his conviction was later denied, and his sentence was affirmed.
