Press Release
The Office of State Attorney Glenn Hess announces that on March 22, 2019, Circuit Judge James J. Goodman sentenced Damieyon Dontrell O’Neal to life in prison for Second Degree Murder with a Firearm. O’Neal previously entered an open plea to the charge, with no sentencing agreement.
The State was prepared to prove at trial that on April 27, 2017, the Defendant shot the victim, Kaycha Smith, three times and left her body on the edge of a field in Marianna. Smith was pregnant and claimed the Defendant was the father of the child, and had obtained an injunction for protection against the Defendant two months earlier. The Defendant told his brother that he had killed Ms. Smith, and a third party led investigators to the murder weapon, which was located in a drainage ditch in Panama City. The case was prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney Bob Sombathy, Chief of Major Crimes, and was investigated by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office and the Chipley Police Department.
For additional information, contact Chief Assistant State Attorney Larry Basford.