Father who spent decades in prison for baby’s death released, waiting new trial

Smith dressed in civilian clothes for the hearing. His attorney, Mark Loudon-Brown, confirmed they spoke briefly afterward, saying “he’s happy.” Smith was released from the Gwinnett jail around 11:15 p.m. Tuesday, online records show.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

State officials have argued that Smith’s 2-month-old son, Chandler, died by shaken baby syndrome in 2002. For years, Smith’s defense team had pushed to retry the case and present new evidence. On July 21, Gallant granted Smith’s extraordinary motion for a new trial and his charges of murder, cruelty to children and aggravated battery were vacated.

Last month, state prosecutors filed a notice of appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia to contest the decision to grant a new trial. Smith’s attorney then filed a motion for bond pending the appeal, court documents show.

During Tuesday’s bond hearing, Loudon-Brown told the judge that Smith has no reason to flee because he has been trying to clear his name for 24 years and now has the chance to do so. Loudon-Brown said Smith has no disciplinary record during his time in prison. He also handed the judge a letter from a warden, who he said described Smith as someone who followed the rules and participated in programming.

Gwinnett prosecutors offered Smith the opportunity to walk out of prison in 2023 on the condition he admit to killing the child. He rejected the deal, saying he refused to admit to something he did not do. Loudon-Brown referenced that offer in his argument for bond.

“If they were comfortable with him in the community then, they should be comfortable with him in the community now,” he told the judge.

But state prosecutor Lauren McAuley, who opposed Smith’s release from custody, said the case is now in a different place than when the Gwinnett District Attorney’s Office offered that deal. McAuley said Smith is a flight risk and added that media attention could taint witnesses in the pending new trial.

Judge Gallant said she never forgot about Chandler as she mulled the decision. She said she also has never granted bond in a murder case but described Smith’s case as different. She said Smith’s clean disciplinary history during his prison stint was part of her decision to let him go home.

Smith’s case is among a number of convictions embroiled in a national debate over shaken baby deaths. There have been numerous exonerations because of scientific advances that have shifted how the medical community diagnoses the condition, now called abusive head trauma.

Smith’s lawyers and several medical experts who reviewed Chandler’s records have suggested the infant likely died from natural causes brought on by seizures and his premature birth, not violent shaking.

In July, upon granting Smith a new trial, the judge in her ruling said she found Smith’s new lawyers presented a compelling alternative to the state’s version of events.

That alternative explanation ― which was corroborated by three pathologists, a radiologist and a pediatric neurosurgeon ― “is so material that it would probably produce a different verdict” at trial, Gallant wrote.

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Smith’s fiancee, LaTasha Pyatt, and several of his family members hugged, cried and prayed outside the courtroom doors after Tuesday’s hearing. Pyatt told reporters she has been with Smith for 11 years but has never spent time with him outside of visitation rooms. He plans to live with her while on bond.

“Nobody wins. Danyel can’t get back his 24 years. Chandler can’t come back. Nobody wins, but we have been fighting to get the truth out for 24 years,” Pyatt said.