Vonda Smith

 

This is another case that I saw profiled on the Showtime series “Wrong Man.” The interesting thing about this case when it comes to that show is that out of the two seasons that I watched (and at this time has been released) it was the only case in which the investigators were not convinced of her complete innocence in the end. While they, as well as most people, do not believe that Vonda Smith could have murdered Jessica Morrison without help, they also know that Vonda's story does not add up. They were also able to determine that much of what she has told has either been proven to be a lie, or cannot be collaborated. Some believe that Vonda was not involved in the murder at all and is simply covering up for someone else, likely her son. In fact, as the television show was nearing its end one of the investigators visited Vonda in prison and pushed her on the issue. Vonda blurted out that she was covering for her son, William. It is not hard for people to believe this to be the case, however, it appears she has said no more than that and there is no proof of this claim. Vonda is less than a reliable witness and until she tells more, AND it can be proven by an outside investigation nothing will likely happen.

On August 12, 2016, around 7:30pm, the body of twenty-one year old Jessica Morrison was found on an isolated road by a man walking his dog in Greene County Tennessee. Jessica had two sons, ages three and one and was four months pregnant at the time of her death. Jessica's oldest son, Channing, had been a product of basically a fling that Jessica had with William Smith. Despite being three years old Channing had only been involved in the lives of the Smith family for about a year. But, from the outside everything between William, Jessica and William's family, including his mother, Vonda seemed to be going amazing. Vonda quite often would watch both Channing and his brother Kamdyn.

At the time of her murder Jessica was living in a home with her boyfriend, Gary Ealey, her two children and Gary's father, J.D not far from the Smith home in Afton Tennessee. They had just moved into the home about nine months earlier. Until that time Jessica had lived with her children with her mother, Tammy. On the afternoon of her murder Tammy had talked to Jessica about coming to visit her and the children that evening. When Tammy never heard back from Jessica she had gone to the house and when she did not find Jessica she went to the Smith home. Tammy talked to Vonda who by all accounts had at least Channing with her but seemingly had Kamdyn also although it was not specific. Vonda told Tammy that she had seen Jessica earlier in the day when they went to the grocery store and that after lending Jessica some money to pay some bills Jessica had asked to borrow her car. She would claim that the car had been returned but she had not seen Jessica when she did so. At this point Jessica's body had not been found.

An autopsy revealed that Jessica had been severely beaten and suffered extreme trauma in the area of her head. She also had bruises and cuts along her arms and even a broken finger. This indicated that she had fought her attacker. Some of her personal papers and other things belonging to Jessica were found several miles away from her body as if it had been thrown out of a vehicle.

As the investigation began of course Gary Ealey was first on the list of suspects. Gary would tell investigators that he had worked from about 6:30 in the morning to just after 7:00 that night, living him little to no time to commit the murder. He would tell law enforcement that the last time he had seen Jessica had been on his lunch break when Jessica had dropped off the car the two shared together to him and had left with Vonda Smith. Surveillance cameras would show Jessica, Vonda and the children going to a local grocery and leaving about 3:45.

Investigators would quickly talk to Vonda. It was reported that there were no visible signs of trauma on Vonda's body which indicated for them that she may not have been involved. Vonda was fifty-one years old, short and quite heavy. It appeared that she would have been no match to the twenty-one year old feisty Jessica. Vonda would tell investigators that after going to the grocery store they had gone to Jessica's home to drop off the groceries. At that point Vonda claimed that she had given Jessica $1,000 to pay some bills and Jessica had asked to borrow her car. She claimed that Jessica had dropped her and the boys at her home and left in her vehicle. Vonda would claim that around 5:30 or so she had heard a noise outside and while she did not see Jessica she did see a white van next to her now returned vehicle and then the van left.

Now, something has stuck with me about this throughout the television program, my research and now as I put this together. There seemed to be no questions asked about the fact as to why Jessica would return the vehicle to Vonda and not pick up her children. I heard no indication that Vonda even made a comment to this even to say that there was a plan for her to keep the children that night. Even so, had she said that there would be the question as to why Tammy Morrison had made plans with Jessica to see her and the children and it was not mentioned that they were staying at Vonda's or that Jessica would have informed Tammy of this later since presumably this plan would have been made prior to Jessica borrowing the car.

Not long after Jessica allegedly returned Vonda's car she stated she had left, using that car, to go and pick up a child that belonged to William's girlfriend at the time. This seemed to be very important to investigators. At their first interview with Vonda it appears that investigators asked if she would consent to having her car searched and she did. It seemed very apparent to investigators that something had happened in that car. While it appeared to have been cleaned it was clear that there were stains all over the passenger seat of the car. When tested those stains were revealed to be Jessica's blood. I will get more into this later as we go through the evidence and the things told to investigators by Vonda and others that were interviewed. It is unclear when those results were concluded.

Investigators looked into the issue where Vonda stated that she had given Jessica $1,000 to pay some bills. It seems as if Vonda had expressed some particular bills such as the water bill and part of her rent needing paid and this was why Jessica borrowed her car. Those bills mentioned were looked into and had been paid prior to the day Vonda stated she had given Jessica the money. Not only was there no evidence that Jessica had paid any bills on that day, the more troubling part is there was no evidence that Vonda had given her the money at all. Some could argue that Jessica had lied about needing the money for some things and had used the money for something else, but that still left the fact that aside from Vonda's word there was no evidence it was even given to Jessica. And, when Jessica's body and other things later found there was money found but nothing significant, nor was there any evidence she had spent money anywhere.

In March of 2017 authorities believed they had enough on Vonda to arrest her on two counts of first degree murder, one for Jessica and one for her unborn baby. Vonda, along with her family and many friends continued then, and now to proclaim her innocence. Everyone, including Vonda, would claim how much Vonda cared for Jessica and her children and that everything between the two women was wonderful and kosher. The investigation however had revealed that things were not exactly as they had seemed. There were text messages found between Vonda and Jessica showed that they had argued, recently and apparently often, where Vonda was claiming not to see Channing as often as she would like and apparently undermining Jessica as a parent. I can only assume that upon Jessica's death that Channing must have gone to live with William, who was living with Vonda. It was said that at the time of her arrest she did in fact have Channing at her home. However, my research indicated that at least in 2018 Jessica's mother, Tammy had custody of Channing and William was preparing for a custody fight.

On May 25, 2017 the jury returned guilty verdicts against Vonda. She was found guilty of first degree murder for Jessica and second degree in the murder of Jessica's unborn child. She was immediately given a sentence of life without parole for Jessica's murder. Later she was given the maximum sentence of twenty-five years for the murder of the unborn child. She, her friends and family have still consistently maintained her innocence which prompted the investigators from The Wrong Man to look into her case.

I know that I have compiled this case a bit different than I have most cases. Generally by the time I have gotten to this point you have seen and heard all of the evidence both prosecutors and the defense offered. I have done this one differently because I feel as if some of the things will be easier to understand taking them one by one.

So lets first talk about the blood in Vonda's car. I think this is most damaging thing against her but there was also some questionable things about it. Vonda admits to cleaning the car with bleach but while she claims to have done so prior to Jessica being murdered investigators are not so sure. The story from Vonda was that she and her husband had been visiting relatives that lived in a rural area sometime prior to Jessica's murder. The relatives, and Vonda, claim that an outdoor cat that roamed the property had gotten into the vehicle and had urinated inside leaving a strong ammonia smell. The relatives claimed that they had suggested the bleach to get the smell out. It is not completely clear just how much before Jessica's murder that this was alleged to have been done. I mention this because I suppose in a weird way it could be possible that the seats were still wet or had bleach residue on them and the blood would have soaked into it and faded. There were pictures taken of the passenger seat of Vonda's car and while it may not look like blood necessarily between the fading and the color of the seats but it was clear that there were huge stains in the seat. Vonda would claim that she did not see the blood in the seat when she went to pick up Emily, her son's girlfriend's child. Emily was at her great grandmother's house when Vonda picked her up. The grandmother claimed that she had seen the car when Emily got inside and she says she did not see the blood there, nor did Emily. As I recall this all occurred about an hour before Jessica's body was found. The problem that lies with this evidence is that it was extremely visible in the car when investigators saw it. It seems inconceivable that anyone would say they did not see it. Now, obviously one can say that Vonda had a motive to claim not to see it but for Emily and the grandmother seemingly questions things. Vonda never claims that her car left her property again that evening as far as I can tell. There is one other theory that I have about the blood that “no one” saw is one that I did not hear or see being discussed.

I never saw any information about blood splatter in the car. It seemed that the investigation, or at least that that I saw, concentrated on the seats of the vehicle. In my opinion it is possible that Jessica was not killed much earlier at another location and that the car was simply used to transport her body. Her body was found some five miles from Vonda's home. My only other theory for this is that the body was concealed after she was murdered and that after Vonda came home after getting Emily her car was used to transport Jessica's body to the place in which it was found. That being said, it also seems reasonable that even if Vonda did not murder Jessica she knew way more than she was saying. There have been questions as to why she would have consented to the search of the car if she knew the blood was there.

Next up is the issue of the alleged white van. Vonda had stated that she had heard a noise outside and when she looked out she did not see Jessica but saw a white van pull away. A neighbor of Jessica's also reported seeing a white van at Jessica's house I believe he said at about 5:30 and seeing Jessica get inside. Gary Ealey's brother had a white van and was often at the trailer and while this neighbor seems to be confident the day, time and what he observed we have all seen faulty eye witnesses. There does not seem to be any proof, without question, that Jessica was seen around that time or in the presence of a white van.

But, the elusive “white van” plays another role in this story. It is unclear exactly when Vonda told this story or even when she claims that it occurred but she claims that she was basically kidnapped on a long rural road late one evening after Jessica's murder, but obviously before her arrest. She would claim that these men, who she did not identify by name, or maybe even description, had all but forced her off the road and then took her to a bridge where she was “thrown over.” I think it was at this point in the investigation on the show The Wrong Man that the investigators felt that they had to severely look over everything that Vonda had said once again. The investigators went to the scene of where this allegedly happened and it was a huge drop and yet not only did she allegedly survive the drop, she had few injuries. Now, in my research I did not find anything about this allegation so I did not have that to refresh my memory but as I recall she may have gone to the hospital a few days after the alleged incident but again there were minor cuts and bruises, nothing that indicated a push from a bridge. The bridge was not a huge bridge with a drop that amounted to a hundred feet but it was at least a fifteen to twenty foot drop. In addition to that the waterway that the bridge crossed was only a little bigger than a creek so it was rather shallow and had a large rock bed. Inside the water were massive rocks and trees and limbs so it seemed impossible to the investigators that she could have been thrown from this bridge and suffer only a few minor cuts and bruises.

As I said, it was Vonda's bridge story that had investigators looking more into her entire story. They knew the bridge story could not be true but they also still believed that it would have been impossible to Vonda to kill Jessica on her own, especially leaving no scratches. This led one of the investigators on the show to go to the prison and confront her. The investigator pointed out the issue with the blood being in the car, the fact that there was no evidence she gave Jessica money for bills or that she had used it for that, and basically that they did not believe the bridge story. He also talked to her about something that I have not mentioned here. While Vonda consistently stated she did not see Jessica return her car she always subtly seemed to be trying to divert investigators towards Gary Ealey. The investigators had looked into Gary as well as his father and while they found a few things a bit questionable there was nothing that led them to believe either of the men were involved. The investigator was firm with her that he was convinced she knew way more than she was telling. Vonda proceeded to blurt out that she had seen her son William get out of her car that evening when it was returned and that she was covering for him.

Of course the investigators went to Vonda's family and told them what she had said. William denied the allegation saying he was not sure why his mother would say such a thing and of course without anything more than the word of a woman who had told so many stories already there was and is nothing law enforcement could do about it. Reality of it is that one or more people in that household had to be involved in the murders of Jessica Morrison and her unborn child. I would gander to guess that everyone in that house knows the truth. While I agree that there seems to be no way that Vonda could have done it by herself, I have to say I am unsure she was involved at all except for after the fact. I think it is completely plausible that William committed the crime and it was thought that it would be okay for most of the evidence and suspicion to fall on Vonda because I would gander to guess that no one thought there would be enough evidence to convict her. I also suspect that is why her trial took place a mere two months after her arrest. The fact she was left without marks or scratches is a big thing but I think the investigators did most of their work before her arrest and added all together it fit. Then again maybe they figured they had enough to charge her but knew she could not have done it alone and hoped it would either make her or someone else talk. If the latter was the case it obviously did not work, but then again if it was the plan by Vonda and/or others to only have the evidence point to her thinking she would get off that also backfired.

I do not figure that unless law enforcement is pressed it will not be looked into any further. In their minds the case is solved completely. I suppose if Vonda Smith wants to take the fall alone that was her choice. There is no doubt in my mind that she knows exactly what happened that night and everyone that was involved. Maybe she was the mastermind behind it; maybe she only knew about it after... either way she is paying for it with her life.