June 19, 2013

Ex-Ranger sentenced to 28 years for killing fellow soldier

BY: SCOTT MCCABE OCTOBER 15, 2012 | 5:54 PM | MODIFIED: OCTOBER 15, 2012 AT 5:55 PM
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A former Army Ranger was sentenced Monday to 28 years in prison for killing a fellow Ranger in the Gaithersburg apartment they shared.

Gary Smith, 29, was convicted last month by a Montgomery County Circuit Court jury of involuntary manslaughter and a handgun charge in the 2006 death of 22-year-old Michael McQueen.

McQueen was fatally shot in the head after the two had been out drinking.

"Twenty-eight years in prison is a long time for this defendant to think about the pain and heartache caused the McQueen family and to think about his actions in and out of jail," said John J. McCarthy, State's Attorney for Montgomery County.

In 2008, Smith was convicted of depraved-heart second-degree murder -- a killing committed while acting in "extreme disregard" for human life -- as well as a weapons charge and was sentenced to 35 years in prison.

But the Maryland Court of Appeals overturned those convictions in 2011, because the jurors were not allowed to hear a witness' testimony that suggested McQueen was in a depressed state of mind when he died. Smith's attorneys said McQueen might have killed himself.

smccabe@washingtonexaminer.com

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