CHEYENNE — A trial begins Monday a decade after the brutal murder of two men at The Coin Shop at 510 W. Lincolnway in the downtown district of Wyoming’s capital city.
Jury selection will begin Monday in the double first-degree murder trial of Douglas Mark Smith, the now 69-year-old who made the initial 911 call after George Manley 76, and Dwight Brockman, 67, were gunned down the morning of July 20, 2015.
Smith called 911 and reported the shooting, telling police that he walked in on the robbery right after the men were killed, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case.
Smith claimed a mysterious man with a neck tattoo pointed a .45-caliber handgun at him and told him to leave, which he did. Then he called 911.
Along with passing a polygraph test a few months after the crime, preliminary hearing testimony revealed that the neighborhood surrounding the shop wasn’t searched, nor was Smith’s vehicle.
He wasn’t initially considered a suspect, so also wasn’t subjected to a gunshot residue test.
Back On The Radar
Fast forward eight years to 2023, when investigators picked up the then-cold case and went to California to interview Smith again, who had moved to Canada then to California by that time.
It was then police grew more suspicious because Smith’s story took some dramatic turns from what he first reported.
In their investigation, detectives discovered Smith had owned multiple .45-caliber handguns during his life, the affidavit said.
Police analyzed nearby surveillance cameras covering every direction surrounding the shop, the affidavit says. There was no evidence of any suspect other than Smith leaving the business at the time of the crime.
Smith had told 911 operators he would try to get a photo of the suspect when they left the building but never saw anyone leave westbound from the store, which only had one exit. Nearby witnesses who had heard a muffled gunshot also saw no one leave the store or running from the area.
Officers arrived at the scene shortly after and also saw no suspects leaving the scene.
Smith later picked out a man with a large tattoo on his neck from a suspect lineup with 97% confidence, according to the affidavit.
Previously, Smith had never mentioned the suspect having any kind of tattoo on his neck.
He explained away this inconsistency in a late-night email sent to former Detective John Pederson four days after the murder, where he speculated that the man must have been wearing makeup to cover up the tattoo while committing the crime.
Smith also jumped to other conclusions about the suspect, who he referred to as “our guy,” saying the man “has done this in the past,” the affidavit says.
When asked about the email in 2023, Smith said he didn’t remember sending it.
During an in-person interview conducted May 9, 2023, Smith said he was certain the suspect was someone else and denied ever looking at photo lineups, the affidavit says.
Doesn't Add Up
During a May 3, 2023, phone interview with investigators, Smith said he had been in the store for around 15-20 seconds. However, in his initial interview, Smith said that two to three minutes had passed from the time he entered the store until he called 911.
He also claimed to have called The Coin Shop before he went there to make sure it was open, but there’s no record of the call.
Another inconsistency was claiming he was only in the shop for 15-20 seconds before leaving the shop and calling 911. But later said two or three minutes had passed between the time he entered the store and called 911.
When confronted with inconsistencies in his stories of the crime then and now, Smith denied killing the men that day at The Coin Shop.
“If you guys want to haul me back and throw me in jail, that’s fine,” he told investigators.
If convicted, Smith faces life in prison without parole.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
