Accused killer of Middle Georgia police officer sent to prison in prior shooting
A Middle Georgia man accused of fatally shooting an Eastman police officer in 2016 admitted on Thursday to violating the terms of his probation in a prior shooting that left a man wounded in neighboring Telfair County.
Royheem Delshawn Deeds was sentenced to five years in prison for violating his probation.
He is also accused of opening fire on Eastman officer Timothy Kevin Smith and killing him in an allegedly unprovoked attack the night of Aug. 13, 2016.
At a hearing in Dodge County Superior Court on Thursday, Deeds’ probation was revoked in connection with a 2015 shooting, an aggravated assault case, that left a man wounded in Lumber City.
The development was another step in the run-up to a likely death penalty trial for Deeds in the next year or two, Oconee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tim Vaughn said Friday.
Deeds had been sentenced in the Lumber City shooting as a first-offender, which comes with strict guidelines, including, for Deeds, not leaving the state without permission.
When he was apprehended in the wake of officer Smith’s death, authorities have said an on-the-run Deeds was hiding in the trunk of a car when it was pulled over by the police in Nassau County, Florida.
Deeds, 27, who will be moved to a state prison in the coming weeks, has been jailed in Glynn County on Georgia’s coast since his arrest in the days after Smith’s slaying.
Deeds has been held there to avoid any potential run-ins at lockups in the Eastman area.
Deeds has ties to the south Middle Georgia towns of McRae, Chauncey, Milan and Lumber City. In officer Smith’s death, he faces charges that include malice murder, two counts of felony murder, aggravated assault on a peace officer and possession of a firearm by a first-offender probationer.
The GBI and other officials have said that Smith was in his squad car on the night he was slain, answering a call about a man with a gun. There he encountered Deeds, who was said to have pulled a pistol and opened fire on Smith. Smith, 30, was fatally shot in his upper chest.
Information from Telegraph archives was used in this report.