Kentucky man who committed violent kidnapping, shot officer gets lifetime prison sentence
A Kentucky man who carried out a violent kidnapping and shot a police officer in the throat has been sentenced to life in prison.
Jonathan Lee Smithers, 41, of Catlettsburg, pleaded guilty in federal court to kidnapping. U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning sentenced Smithers last week.
Smithers victimized a woman with whom he was in a relationship, according to court records. He punched her, threatened to shoot her and hit her in the head with a gun, according to his plea agreement.
After that, Smithers forced the woman to climb fences in Flatwoods and “traverse random routes” for hours before she collapsed in a creek bed, according to the court record.
The woman, who was not named in court documents, was able to escape after Smithers turned his back. She went to a gas station and collapsed by the pumps, where someone found her, according to the court record.
When people responded to investigate, Smithers shot a Flatwoods officer in the throat. The officer suffered a life-threatening injury but survived.
The sentence for Smithers “ensures that an incredibly violent offender has been removed from the streets and will no longer be a threat to society,” Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI in Kentucky, said in a news release. “Mr. Smithers not only tragically kidnapped his trusted partner and led her on a series of terrorizing demands, but he then seriously wounded a local police officer.”
The FBI, Kentucky State Police and the Ashland and Flatwoods police departments investigated the case.
