DETROIT – A judge has decided to hold off on sentencing a Michigan senator who pleaded guilty to a malicious destruction of property charge for opening fire on his ex-wife's car after she found him in bed with another woman.
Michigan Sen. Virgil Smith was set to be sentenced Monday to 10 months in jail and five years of probation after pleading guilty. Smith's sentence would have been part of a plea deal. His guilty plea was in exchange for prosecutors dropping charges of domestic violence, felony firearm and felonious assault.
However, Judge Lawrence Talon said he could not accept the condition of the plea agreement that allows Smith to resign his position as state senator. Talon set a new sentencing date of March 28.
"The plea is legal, and the defendant agreed to it. If all the conditions are not accepted by the court we will withdraw our plea. We are certain that we stand on solid legal ground," said Prosecutor Kym L. Worthy.
Smith, a Democrat who has served in the Legislature since 2003, was charged after the May 10, 2015, incident.
Smith's ex-wife, Anistia Thomas, testified that she went to his home on Wexford Street that night and he let her inside. There, Thomas said, she found another woman naked in the bed.
A fight followed and Thomas said Smith punched her in the face and rammed her head into the floor after she fell into a TV.
Thomas said Smith put his arm into the back of her neck.
"It basically stopped my breathing at that point," she said.
As she left the house, Thomas said she fell over the railing and hit her face on the concrete.
When she got up, she noticed Smith was "holding a big gun in the air."
Smith then allegedly fired several shots into Thomas' 2015 Mercedes.
Smith, 35, is the son of longtime state lawmaker and Wayne County Judge Virgil Smith Jr.