Michael Smith was sentenced to death by the State of Oklahoma for two murders
According to court documents Michael Smith would murder Janet Moore who was the mother of a man who Smith believed went to the police
Michael Smith would also shoot and kill Sarath “Babu” Pullur during a robbery then would set the store on fire
Michael Smith would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Michael Smith Photos
Michael Smith Now
Gender: Male
Race: Black
Height: 5 ft 10 in
Weight: 189 lbs
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Alias: Killa Hoover
Alias: H K. Smith
Alias: Locster Smith
Alias: Lonnell D. Smith
Alias: Keezy
OK DOC#: 457856
Birth Date: 6/24/1982
Current Facility: OKLAHOMA STATE PENITENTIARY, MCALE
Reception Date: 10/20/2003
Michael Smith Case
Petitioner Michael DeWayne Smith is a member of the Oak Grove Posse (OGP), a subset of the Crips gang that operates in Oklahoma City. In November 2000, Teron “T-Nok” Armstrong and two other members of the OGP attempted to rob Tran’s Food Mart in south Oklahoma City. The store owner shot and killed Mr. Armstrong. Mr. Smith was not involved in the robbery but had “close personal ties” to Mr. Armstrong. Smith v. State (Smith I), 157 P.3d 1155, 1161 (Okla. Crim. App. 2007).
The other two would-be robbers were later arrested and were set to be tried for the robbery in February 2002. Two days before the trial, Mr. Smith, armed with a .357 revolver, went to the apartment of Janet Moore. Believing Ms. Moore’s son was a police informant, Mr. Smith kicked in her door and confronted her. When she began to scream, Mr. Smith shot her to death. Before leaving, Mr. Smith wiped down the apartment to eliminate any fingerprint evidence
Mr. Smith next went to the A-Z Mart, a convenience store “immediately next door” to Tran’s Food Mart—the site of the earlier failed robbery attempt. Id. at 1161. Mr. Smith “emptied two pistols into” the clerk on duty, Sarath Pulluru, took money from the register, and then used lighter fluid to set fires around the store. Id. He set fire to Mr. Pulluru’s body and “whatever he had touched in the A-Z Mart to destroy evidence.” Id. at 1162. Afterward he disposed of the clothes he had worn during the murders.
Mr. Smith returned home early the next morning and reported to his roommate that he had killed Janet Moore, had “done something else to ‘take care of business,’ ” and had “avenged his family.” Id. at 1161. A couple of hours later, Mr. Smith went to the home of Sheena Johnson. He told her that he had killed Ms. Moore because her son had been “snitching” and that he had “killed a person at a ‘chink’ store” because someone connected to the A-Z Mart “had been on television ‘dissing’ his set” in response to the earlier attempted robbery. Id. Ms. Johnson later reported this conversation to police, who had already taken Mr. Smith into custody on a different matter.
Three days after Mr. Smith was arrested, detectives interviewed him about the killings. He signed a written waiver of his Miranda rights 3 and agreed to talk to the detectives. After initially denying his involvement, Mr. Smith admitted to both murders, explaining that he “killed both victims in retaliation for wrongs done him or his family.” Id. He explained that he went to Ms. Moore’s apartment looking for her son but ended up killing her when she “panicked and started screaming.” Id. And he stated that he killed Mr. Pulluru “in retaliation against the store owner who shot Armstrong and in retaliation for disrespectful comments about Armstrong in the press attributed to someone from the A-Z Mart.” Id. He further admitted that he had disposed of the clothes he wore during the murders, wiped down Ms. Moore’s apartment to eliminate fingerprints, and set fires in the A-Z Mart to destroy evidence. Mr. Smith’s confession was videotaped