Smith was held on $500,000 bail following a hearing in Hampden Superior Court.
Tamik Kirkland, left, and Treven Smith are seen during recent court hearings in Springfield.SPRINGFIELD – Accused killer and cop shooter Tamik Kirkland stuck a gun in his friend’s face and handed him a flip-phone to recruit him as an accomplice for Kirkland’s April 30 shooting spree in the Bay neighborhood, according to investigators.
Trevin T. Smith, 30, of 79 Penrose St., was held on $500,000 bail after a hearing in Hampden Superior Court Friday morning. Technically, the high bail amount was a reduction for Smith, who was denied bail at a previous hearing. He is charged with accessory before and after murder, and reckless endangerment of a child.
Hampden County District Attorney Mark G. Mastroianni told a judge that Smith was hanging out in the neighborhood late that morning when he encountered Kirkland, whom he knew had escaped from a state prison days before to avenge his mother’s shooting.
“They shot my moms. I gotta do what I gotta do ... . you helping me? You with me?” Mastroianni recounted to Judge Daniel Ford, referring to Kirkland’s hard-sell approach to Smith that day.
Smith then drove to his girlfriend’s house where he saw her loading a six-month old baby and her 12-year-old daughter in her car, and asked her to take a detour to a house at Cambridge and Burr streets. In the meantime, Kirkland, 25, ambushed a barber and his customer at Bill Brown’s House of Beauty on State Street, wounding the barber and killing 24-year-old Sheldon R. Innocent. of Wilbraham.
Minutes later, the woman rolled up to the house where Smith had directed her, as he guided her to make a six-point turn, back into the driveway and pop the trunk, according to Mastroianni. The woman, who has not been identified, told police she saw a man whose street name she knew as “Maniac” leap into the trunk.
“(Smith) stayed on the phone with her while she was doing all this,” Mastroianni told Ford.
Kirkland leapt into the trunk, but police surrounded the car as the woman tried to drive away. Officers ordered her to pop the trunk, investigators say, and Kirkland emerged shooting at officers, who returned fire.
Two officers were hit in the chest but spared serious injury by their bullet-proof vests. Kirkland was shot several times but survived. The children in the back seat were unharmed.
Alexander Z. Nappan, a lawyer for Smith, argued that his client participated in the situation under duress and only because Kirkland had a handgun trained inches from his head.
Mastroianni said Smith immediately grabbed a ride out of town after the shootings that essentially locked down several square blocks afterward and drew a swarm of law enforcement.
He arrived in New York City but was rebuffed by friends and family whom he approached to hide him, Mastroianni said. He ultimately turned himself in to police in that city on June 4.
Kirkland was arraigned in Superior Court on June 17 while in a wheelchair; he was shot six times. He denied 16 criminal charges including the murder of Innocent. Both face life sentences if convicted.
A pretrial conference is set for both men on Oct. 17.