A family fight over property that led to the fatal shooting of a woman in 2015 has put a man behind bars for nearly 22 years.
On Wednesday, Timothy Lee Smith — who killed his sister-in-law during an argument near the Utah-Arizona border, then tied her ankles to his truck and dragged the body to a hiding place — was ordered by U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups to spend 262 months in a federal prison for the crime.
Before the sentence was imposed, Smith said he was sorry for what he had done.
“I know my actions are the cause of everyone’s pain today, on both sides of the family,” he said.
A plea bargain in the case called for a prison term of at least 20 years and no more than 30 years, and prosecutor Michael Thorpe asked for the maximum sentence for the “cold and depraved homicide” of 62-year-old Maranny “Marena” Hatalie Holiday. The victim’s son, who called Smith “an animal,” also wanted him to serve the longest term possible.
“I hate this man,” Chavez Holiday said. “I ask you, judge, to give this man the 30.”
But in handing down the sentence, Waddoups noted that Smith had suffered severe brain damage years before. The judge found that Smith did not premeditate the crime, but acted while he was enraged.
Outside the court, Carol Surveyor, Holiday’s daughter, said she has no satisfaction with the sentence “because it won’t bring my mother back.” Surveyor is running as a Democrat for Congress against Republican Rep. Chris Stewart.
In court, Surveyor told Waddoups she had suffered such intense grief over the death of her mother that she lost her job and her apartment. She and two of her daughters lived with relatives and friends and even stayed in a homeless shelter before she was able to get her own apartment, Surveyor said.
“God help me,” she said. “Life should not be that hard.”
Smith, 46, was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of first-degree murder within Indian Country and being a felon in possession of a firearm in the death of Marena Holiday on Nov. 30, 2015. He pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder as part of the plea deal.
According to prosecutors, Smith and Holiday had been part of a long-running fight over the family home that Smith’s wife, who is Holiday’s sister, had inherited from their mother. On the day of the slaying, the two — who were neighbors as well as in-laws — argued about a sweat lodge built on the inherited property by Holiday’s husband, which Smith took down.
Holiday put her hand on Smith’s chest and pushed him, prosecutors say. In a written statement, Smith admitted that he reacted by punching Holiday in the face, causing her to fall to the ground.
He kicked Holiday twice, Smith said, then retrieved a .22-caliber handgun from his house.
“I went back outside to find Maranny on the ground,” Smith said in his statement. “I approached Maranny from behind and said, ‘I promise you it will be fast.’ I then shot Maranny one time in the head.”
Smith said he tied a rope around Holiday’s ankles, then tied the rope to his truck and dragged her body to a hiding place.
The shooting took place on the Navajo reservation in San Juan County, just yards into Utah from the state’s border with Arizona.
Smith’s truck got stuck after he hid Holiday’s body under a tree and he was spotted from the air three days later, running through the desert a few miles northeast of Mexican Hat, according to San Juan County Sheriff Rick Eldredge. Smith surrendered to deputies and police from the Navajo Nation who flew to his location in a Utah Department of Public Safety helicopter.
In court Wednesday, Smith’s wife, Mistene Smith, said her husband is a good father. A daughter and two of Smith’s stepchildren also described him as a supportive father and a loving husband.
“I love my dad and my dad has been there for me more times than I can count,” the daughter wrote.
And a stepdaughter said in her letter that Smith is remorseful and never denied his actions.
“Timothy Smith is our father, he’s shown us love and we will never forget it,” she wrote.