Nicholas Smoot, 29, of the Hillsboro area has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after a Jefferson County jury found him guilty of murder for beating his father to death on Dec. 19, 2019.
Eric Smoot, a retired Hillsboro Fire Protection captain, was 53 when he was killed.
On March 25, Jefferson County Div. 4 Circuit Judge Brenda Stacey sentenced Nicholas Smoot to 25 years for second-degree murder, five years for armed criminal action and five years for second-degree domestic assault. He will serve the sentences for murder and assault concurrently, or at the same time, and the sentence for armed criminal action will be served consecutively, for a total of 30 years, court records show.
After deliberating for about two and a half hours on Jan. 5, a jury of eight women and four men convicted Smoot on the three charges.
Jefferson County assistant prosecuting attorney Travis D. Partney handled the case.
According to police reports and testimony at the trial, Smoot used a golf club to beat his father, who was in extremely frail health at the time. He was beaten after he tried to intervene when his son was assaulting his girlfriend in a Hillsboro-area home where all three lived.
Deputies got a call around 3:15 a.m. about a domestic disturbance at the Hillsboro-area home, and when they arrived, Nicholas Smoot was on top of his father and appeared ready to strike him with a bottle, the probable-cause statement in the case said.
Before that, Nicholas Smoot had been attacking his girlfriend, a 26-year-old Hillsboro woman, at the home. He had forced the woman onto a bed and then onto the floor in one of the home’s bedrooms and was twisting her body and limbs into various painful positions. The woman also told authorities he bit her right forearm and nose. She had a red mark and bruising on her arm, and her nose was cut and bleeding, the report said.
Eric Smoot tried to intervene, and his son attacked him, and the two wound up in the kitchen. The woman told deputies that Nicholas Smoot hit his father twice in the stomach with a metal golf club, according to the report.
After the attack, Eric Smoot was transported to Mercy Hospital Jefferson Hospital in Crystal City and later to Mercy Hospital South in St. Louis County, but he died the same day, authorities reported.
Medical staff told deputies Eric Smoot had cuts on his arms and forehead, as well as injuries to his stomach area, and likely suffered internal bleeding, the report said.
Eric Smoot had served about 30 years with Hillsboro Fire before retiring in 2014, said Brian Gaudet, the fire district’s chief.