The judge in the pending retrial of accused killer Paul Gentile Smith blasted prosecutors and detectives involved in the investigation Tuesday, June 18, after a week’s worth of testimony on the mishandling of evidence revealed a disorganized Orange County system for managing criminal cases.
San Diego County Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein appeared exasperated after none of the witnesses could explain why key evidence never got to the defense. Witnesses, including retired sheriff’s investigators and a former high-level prosecutor, had trouble describing Orange County’s record-keeping system during the 2010 trial and no one seemed to be clear on how evidence was supposed to be distributed to attorneys.
Additionally, there did not appear to be a central list of evidence in the Smith case, according to testimony from the investigators and former prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh, now an Orange County Superior Court judge.
“It appears to me, at least, calling the prosecution and defense and law enforcement investigation haphazard is kind,” Goldstein said. “It just seems like this is a disaster waiting to happen.
“I can’t figure this out, guys,” the judge continued. “I’m tempted to go to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department to see what they are doing.”
The case was sent to Goldstein and San Diego to prevent a conflict because Baytieh now sits on the Orange County bench. Smith’s conviction for the 1988 stabbing death of his boyhood friend in Sunset Beach was overturned in 2021 after the discovery that evidence was not disclosed to the defense. The evidence involved reports and recordings indicating that multiple jailhouse informants were used against Smith, in violation of his right to have an attorney present during questioning.
Smith’s current attorney, Orange County Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, is asking Goldstein to dismiss the murder charges entirely because of the prosecution team’s “outrageous government conduct.”
Goldstein’s patience appeared to be wearing thin Tuesday after retired sheriff’s Sgt. Ray Wert described a lax procedure for turning copies of the evidence over to prosecutors. Sometimes, as the lead homicide investigator, he would take the evidence to them or have someone else do it. Or the prosecutor would come to the sheriff’s office. Or it would be left on the prosecutor’s desk.
In any case, Wert testified that he booked the evidence and had believed it was turned over to the prosecution and the defense as required by law.
Last week, Baytieh acknowledged it was his job to turn over the evidence to the defense in the Smith case, but he depended on the investigators to bring it to him. Baytieh, however, testified that he never asked to review all the evidence.
Under questioning by Goldstein, Sanders said he didn’t know whether the original defense team went to the Sheriff’s Department to review all the evidence either.
Goldstein seemed incredulous that an attorney in a homicide case would not go look at all the evidence before trial.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has had a history of mishandling evidence. A 2018 audit by the department found that deputies were booking evidence late — if at all. Reforms were made to tighten up the evidence booking system, described by Wert as “archaic.”
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