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JACKSON – A Baltimore, Maryland man has accepted a guilty plea on the charge of manslaughter from a criminal case back in 2022.

According to the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office, 34-year-old Johnny Smith Jr. pled guilty on Sept. 10 in Northampton Superior Court to manslaughter.

Smith was sentenced to minimum of 5 years 7 months to a maximum of 8 years in prison.

The incident occurred on March 28, 2022 at approximately 5 p.m. at which time the Northampton County Sheriff’s Office responded to a shooting that occurred outside of Gaston on Warner Bridge Road.

Upon arrival, officers discovered a male subject laying in the front yard of a residence deceased from multiple gunshot wounds to the body.

After a five-month investigation, Northampton Sheriff’s Captain Patrick Jacobs obtained arrest warrants on Sept. 7, 2022, charging two men in the homicide case Smith along with 41-year-old Larry Gardner, also of Baltimore, Maryland. Each was charged with one count of first-degree murder, one count each of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury, and one count each of felony conspiracy to first-degree murder.

The court case against Gardner is pending, according to Jacobs.

The Northampton County Sheriff’s Office thanks the North Carolina SBI for their initial assistance with this investigation.