Left: Phonesia Machado-Fore (Marion County Sheriff’s Office). Center: Jaremy Smith (New Mexico State Police). Right: Officer Justin Hare (NMSP).
A man described as a “cold-blooded killer” from South Carolina, accused of making a paramedic wear a dog shock collar before leading her into the woods to shoot her “execution-style,” and also of killing a New Mexico police officer during his escape, has received his sentence for the cop’s murder.
Jaremy Smith, 33, was given a life sentence on Monday without the chance for parole in his federal case for killing a police officer, as per court documents.
He was sentenced after admitting guilt in January for the murder of New Mexico State Police Officer Justin Hare, who had stopped to assist Smith with a flat tire he encountered while driving on Interstate 40 in March 2024. Smith was driving the vehicle of South Carolina paramedic Phonesia Machado-Fore, 54, who had been reported missing by the Marion County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina on March 14, 2024.
Smith, who is still facing charges in the Machado-Fore case, was accused of going on a cross-country crime rampage after her death, traveling from South Carolina to Texas and New Mexico, where he killed Hare.
Smith’s sentencing memorandum outlines the allegations against him, including how he allegedly murdered the officer and kidnapped Machado-Fore, who was found dead on March 15, 2024, after allegedly swiping some guns from her home. Smith is said to have taken Machado-Fore hostage in a BMW that she owned following the theft and drove her out to a wooded area about a half-mile away, before taking her life.
He later gunned down Hare after the cop stopped to help him with a flat tire.
“In a shocking act of violent depravity, Smith, while under the cover of darkness, murdered a New Mexico State Police Officer on a stretch of Interstate 40 just outside Tucumcari, New Mexico,” the sentencing memo says. “Smith fired three shots into Officer John Doe’s head and neck to avoid arrest on an equally brutal murder he committed in South Carolina two days beforehand.”
Police found Machado-Fore’s remains on the same day that Smith gunned down Hare, the memo says, noting the chilling details of the grim discovery.
“She had been shot once in the back of the head execution style, still wearing her pajamas and house slippers,” the memo says. “She had cut zip ties next to her arms, and her wrists showed telltale signs that she had been bound. She had two blood-soaked bandanas tied around her eyes and plastic packaging tape around her mouth and jaw.”
She also had a dog shock collar secured around her neck, WBTW reports.
“There is no place in our society for cold-blooded killers, which is exactly what he is,” New Mexico State Police Chief Troy Weisler told WBTW in February. “A ruthless murderer who took the lives of two of this country’s finest servants.”
After the armed robbery and Machado-Fore murder, an unnamed associate met up with Smith and they drove from South Carolina to Texas, with the acquaintance later telling police about it, according to law enforcement officials.
Authorities alleged that Smith and the friend he was with committed an armed robbery while driving to Atlanta, and then eventually Texas.
The associate chose to stay in the Lone Star State while Smith continued on to New Mexico, where he encountered Hare and shot him with a Taurus 9 mm handgun. Smith’s plea agreement, which was filed on Jan. 17 and viewed by Law&Crime, detailed what happened in Smith’s own words.
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After shooting Hare, Smith told investigators that he got into the cop’s squad car and began driving “intentionally” with the emergency lights still flashing.
“Officer [Hare] was still in the vehicle when I drove off, and my purpose for driving the police cruiser from the scene was to facilitate my escape,” Smith said.
“With Officer [Hare] still inside the police cruiser, I drove for approximately four minutes and 24 seconds on U.S. Interstate 40 before exiting on a frontage road,” he admitted. “I drove for less than one minute on the frontage road before stopping the police cruiser at a remote location. After stopping the vehicle, I removed Officer [Hare] from the police cruiser and left him lying face up on the roadway. I then re-entered the police cruiser and drove from the scene.”
For Hare’s death, Smith pleaded guilty to five counts, including carjacking resulting in death, using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence and kidnapping resulting in death. He had been locked up at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe County while he awaited his sentencing.
“The cold-blooded murder of Officer [Hare] punctuated Smith’s lifelong commitment to lawlessness, violence, and mayhem,” the government’s sentencing memo says.
“From murder to robbery, hostage taking to burglary, and carjacking to larceny, Smith has managed in his 34 years to inflict incalculable suffering to those unfortunate enough to cross his path,” it adds. “If ever a man were deserving of a life sentence, it is Jaremy Smith.”
Smith is due to go to trial in South Carolina in the coming months, where he is facing 17 charges — including murder, kidnapping, carjacking, criminal conspiracy, two counts of grand larceny of a motor vehicle, two counts of first-degree burglary, two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime and seven counts of being a felon in possession of a handgun. If convicted, prosecutors say he could face the death penalty.
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