http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08058/860651-53.stm
Bounty hunter guilty in '04 slaying faces new charges
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
By Jim McKinnon, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A former bounty hunter, still on probation for a manslaughter conviction in 2004, was charged last weekend with using his old badge, a gun and other paraphernalia while interceding for a friend in a domestic dispute.
Mark Anthony Smith, 41, of the North Side, was arrested early Sunday on charges of impersonating a law enforcement officer, simple assault, possessing instruments of crime related to his wearing of a bulletproof vest, driving with a suspended license and two counts of weapons violations, including a prohibition for convicted felons.
Mr. Smith remained free on $10,000 bail, pending a preliminary hearing tomorrow afternoon in Municipal Court, Downtown.
The charges stem from his alleged involvement in a domestic dispute between his friend, Tina Gates of Sheraden, and her live-in boyfriend, Antwone Faulk.
The couple argued late Saturday and into Sunday at their Citadel Street residence before Ms. Gates, 32, called Mr. Smith for help.
He arrived a short time later wearing a ball cap with "US Marshals" on the front, a T-shirt with the word "Police" superimposed on the front, a gold-colored badge that identified him as a fugitive recovery agent and a fully loaded .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, according to a police affidavit.
Under his jacket and T-shirt, Mr. Smith wore a bulletproof vest with the word "Agent" printed on it.
Mr. Faulk, 46, told police that Mr. Smith threatened him, saying, "I can do whatever I want to you."
Fearing for his safety, Mr. Faulk said he called 911.
Pittsburgh police officers at the scene said Mr. Smith claimed to be still employed as a fugitive recovery agent with a license to carry the gun and badge, even though he hadn't worked for his former employer since 2004 following his arrest on charges that he shot and killed a suspect he had been tracking.
Mr. Smith, according to the police affidavit, later admitted the violations.
In February 2005, Mr. Smith was sentenced to a year of house arrest and three years of probation for his guilty plea to a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
He admitted in December 2004 that he fired a shotgun that killed Michael P. Robinson, 38, whom he was attempting to apprehend on the North Side.
In his defense, he told investigators that Mr. Robinson had attacked him in a darkened room with a silver-colored object that Mr. Smith believed was a gun.
Mr. Smith had faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted at trial for the involuntary manslaughter charge.
He worked for more than 10 years as a fugitive recovery agent for Liberty Bail Bonds Inc., Downtown.
A man who answered the telephone at the bail bond agency yesterday declined comment on the case.
Jim McKinnon can be reached at
jmckinnon@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1939.
First published on February 27, 2008 at 12:00 am
