GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – A Green Bay man is facing decades in prison for his role in a drug deal gone bad.
19-year-old Roosevelt Smith Jr. is charged with party to a crime of armed robbery, party to a crime of first-degree reckless injury, obstructing an officer and two counts of bail jumping. All counts have repeater enhancers.
According to the criminal complaint, Green Bay police were called on March 14, 2016, to a home in the 900 block of Smith Street around 11:20 a.m. for a person who had been shot.
The victim was taken to the hospital, while two witnesses were interviewed about what had happened. Detectives were given the name of one of the suspects involved, they went to his home and brought him to the police station for questioning.
At the station, detectives were told by this suspect that he contacted his cousin to help with a “stain”. A stain is a street term commonly used for a robbery. The suspect said he and his cousin, identified as Roosevelt Smith, were going to steal a quarter pound of marijuana and split it.
Smith, per the complaint, picked up his cousin in a white minivan. Two other men were inside the van that the cousin didn’t recognize. The group parked near some railroad tracks in the area of Van Buren Street and Eastman Avenue.
The group went inside the house and pretended like they were going to buy the marijuana. One of the suspects asked the pot to be placed on a scale to weigh it. As that happened, one of the other men pulled out a gun and shouted, “Don’t move!”
The shooting victim, who was watching this unfold, jumped up and grabbed the gun. Both men wrestled and the gun went off. Two other men grabbed the marijuana and ran out the front door.
Then on March 30, Roosevelt Smith and another man were arrested in reference to this case.
During an interview with detectives, Smith first claimed he doesn’t drive, “because he doesn’t have a car and only has his temps and not driver’s license.” He also said he didn’t pick up his cousin or drive a white van.
When asked about a white van, Smith replied, “There were plenty of white vans out there,” but the van they had sitting in the police garage belonged to his aunt.
Smith then told detectives that his cousin may have brought his name into this because he, “had something going on with his cousin’s old girlfriend, and that he might be mad at me for that.”
Authorities got phone records from Smith’s cousin which show several text messages and phone calls from him around the time of the robbery. However, Smith maintained that he last saw his cousin at a party March 11 and couldn’t remember the last time he spoke to him.
After being asked about the white van again, Smith admitted he was driving the van, but picked up two other guys to go play basketball.
Then Smith told police that he drove the van down to Appleton for a friend to use to drive to Florida. But when speaking with that friend, they said that Smith brought it there to park in the garage, “because it had mechanical problems.”
Smith was booked into the Brown County Jail on March 30th and had bond set at $10,000. He’s due back in court June 6 for his arraignment hearing.
If convicted on all counts, Smith faces over 65 years in prison.
