Longmont – A father facing a child-abuse charge related to the presumed drowning death of his 2-year-old son spent time in prison for threatening to kill U.S. Postal Service employees.
Gil Dwayne Smith, 44, was sentenced in January 1994 to 12 months in prison with three years of supervised parole for “knowingly threatening to assault and murder” Postal Service employees, according to federal records in Trenton, N.J.
Smith faces allegations of child abuse resulting in death in Larimer County for his involvement in the July 15 incident at Carter Lake. Smith told authorities that his 2-year-old son, Shay, fell off Smith’s 17-foot boat about 8 p.m. and into the lake.
Search crews combed the lake for most of the past month looking for Shay’s body. But investigators this week said Smith lied to them about the circumstances of the accident.
They say Smith was towing Shay on a “Super Screamer” tube traveling between 20 to 30 mph with no one watching him but his 3-year-old brother. Shay’s life jacket also was too big for his 25-pound body, said Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden.
Those factors showed negligence on Smith’s part and led to Shay’s death, Alderden said. “You don’t put a toddler in this type of situation and expect a good outcome,” the sheriff said.
Prosecutors spent Wednesday examining the evidence against Smith and will decide today or Friday whether to make a criminal case against him, said Larimer district attorney spokeswoman Linda Jensen.
Smith said Wednesday that if charges are filed in the next few days, he’ll turn himself in, post bond and fight the matter in court. He has hired an attorney.
“It’s just a shock. I’m still mourning over my son, and I don’t even have the time to mourn for my son and grieve because these other allegations are coming up,” he told 9News.
Shay was on the boat just before he fell in, Smith told the television station. “I have absolutely nothing to hide. My son was in the boat. And what I said today or said yesterday is (going to) be said for the rest of my life,” he told 9News.
Larimer investigators said Smith’s blood-alcohol content at the time of the incident was probably 0.084. But, Alderden said, that is under the legal limit for operating a boat in Colorado.
The sheriff also called Smith a “multiple-state offender.” Smith pleaded guilty in 2002 to driving while ability impaired, a misdemeanor alcohol offense, in Longmont.
Smith couldn’t be reached for comment on the federal case. Little additional information was available on the federal charge because it is so old that the records have been put in archives, court clerk staff members said Wednesday.
If convicted on the child- abuse charge, Smith could face between four and 24 years in prison and up to a $1 million fine.
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
