21 May 2018 :

Houston County Jury recommends death for Jerry Jerome Smith for the 5th time. Jurors voted 10-2 to recommend the death penalty. If 1 more juror had opted for life in prison without parole a mistrial would have been declared. Houston County Circuit Judge Michael Conaway will decide next month whether to accept the recommendation. He likely will. This would be the 5th time Smith, 47, has been sentenced to death. Previous cases, though, were overturned on appeal and sent back to local courts. While his punishment has hanged in the balance for 2 decades Smith's guilt isn't in question. In 1996 he killed Willie James Flournoy, 40, Theresa Ann Helms, 26, of, and David Lee Bennett, 29, at a Dothan home police described as a crack (cocaine) house.