The man accused of killing two people in 2015 at The Coin Shop in downtown Cheyenne is back in Wyoming.
Douglas Mark Smith, 68, was arrested last week in his home in California for allegedly shooting two people at the shop, then leading investigators in the wrong direction immediately afterward.
Smith had long been a witness in the case, but it wasn’t until authorities interviewed him again in 2023 that serious inconsistencies in his recount of the event started to emerge.
Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl confirmed to Cowboy State Daily that as of Wednesday morning, Smith has been extradited from California and is in custody at the Laramie County Detention Center.
He will have an initial hearing at 1:30 p.m. Friday in Laramie County Circuit Court. He’s being held on suspicion of two counts of first-degree murder.
Where’s He Been?
Since his arrest last week, Smith had been in custody at the Siskiyou County Jail in northern California as recently as Tuesday.
Smith was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing George Manley, 76, and Dwight Brockman, 67, while robbing The Coin Shop at 510 W. Lincolnway. No prior arrests had been made in the cold case.
There was some doubt for a short period of time about when Smith would arrive in Wyoming as he did not immediately sign a waiver of extradition following his arrest. A waiver of extradition happens when a defendant asks to be returned to a requesting jurisdiction without an extradition hearing.
An extradition hearing is held when a defendant wants to contest being returned to that jurisdiction for prosecution.
Hackl said as far as she knows, no extradition hearing ever took place in California for Smith and that at some point he signed a waiver.
She said Wyoming authorities did not transport Smith back from California, and she assumes the U.S. Marshals Service did the job.
“Safety is very sensitive for these types of things and I was not informed about the travel details,” she said.
What Does It Mean?
Hackl said although Friday's hearing will be conducted at the Laramie County Courthouse, Smith will appear virtually from jail.
He’s facing life in prison if convicted.
Hackl previously told Cowboy State Daily that the state does not anticipate seeking the death penalty against Smith.
Police officers had targeted Smith as a key witness throughout their investigation, but an affidavit submitted with the arrest warrant signed off by Laramie County Circuit Court Judge Antoinette Williams last week shows that investigators had narrowed their focus to Smith as a suspect by May 2023.
During two separate interviews Smith gave to officers at that time, his story about where and what he saw on the day of the murders had changed significantly from what he said in 2015, the affidavit says. This followed on the heels of other inconsistent statements Smith had given throughout the course of the investigation.
“The information provided by Smith distracted and diverted Cheyenne Police Department resources during the early stages of the police investigation,” Police Detective James Pendleton wrote in the affidavit.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
