JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Fleming Island man charged in Washington with damaging government property during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol is asking to stand trial in Jacksonville.
Marcus Smith “will face a biased jury” in Washington, his public defender lawyer said in a motion to move the case to another venue.
“To preserve the basic principles of trial (presumption of innocence, fairness, unbiased jury, etc.), the case must be transferred to the Middle District of Florida-Jacksonville Division,” argued lead counsel Kevin Tate, who is based in North Carolina and working with a public defender’s office in Nevada helping Washington public defenders handle a glut of cases involving the Capitol riot.
Smith, 47, was indicted in January on charges involving damaging an interior door at the Capitol — a felony, because damage costs exceeded $1,000 — as well as six misdemeanor counts involving things like entering restricted grounds and engaging in unspecified violence during a chaotic event where supporters of then-President Donald Trump temporarily shut down a meeting of Congress that eventually certified President Joe Biden's election victory.
He’s an obscure figure in a list of more than 1,200 riot defendants who’ve been accused of crimes ranging from seditious conspiracy to physically attacking police to illegal parading.
But Tate argued three years of court hearings, political pontificating and news coverage about the riot have left marks on Washington residents who would be jurors if Smith’s case is tried there.
“The sins of other, more culpable, and more recognizable January 6th defendants will cast a long shadow over this trial,” the lawyer told U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich in a filing early this month. “Therefore, it does not matter if Mr. Smith is not a recognizable name or if he didn’t commit violence against the police. He will be damned as ‘one of them’ all the same.”
Tate argued moving the case to Jacksonville would help cut a backlog in Washington, where he said about 350 riot cases were still active.
The move would also help Smith, Tate wrote in his motion, describing his client as operating a home maintenance business where Smith needs to work around Northeast Florida to support himself and his family.
The U.S. Constitution’s Sixth Amendment says a defendant is entitled to “a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." It doesn't mention holding trials in other states, however.
Judges have rejected requests by some other riot defendants to move their trials, sometimes after similar arguments were advanced. Prosecutors hadn't responded Thursday to the request on Smith's behalf.