By PATRICK ADRIAN
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WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, Vt. — Four years after fatally shooting Wesley Wing of Springfield after a verbal altercation, Springfield resident Gregory Smith, 33, was sentenced in Windsor County Superior Court yesterday to 13 to 15 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.
For Wesley Wing’s closest family members, anything less than a life sentence for Smith felt short of justice.
“Please know that this [sentence] will never be enough time,” Terry Wing, Wing’s mother, told Judge Timothy Tomasi during the hearing. “I wanted a life sentence because he took a life.”
The fatal shooting occurred on April 18, 2015 during a heated exchange Smith and Wing.
Smith, after learning of a verbal argument between Wing and Smith’s girlfriend Wendy Morris, approached Wing by vehicle, as Wing walked to Jake’s Market to buy cigarettes. After an argument with Wing, Smith drove ahead, turned around and parked his car to wait for Wing. As Wing approached the car Smith fired five shots at Wing and fled the scene, according to court records.
Smith was tried last year for second degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence in Vermont if convicted. The jury, however, could not reach unanimous agreement on second degree murder and agreed to a lesser verdict of voluntary manslaughter, which carries only a 15 year maximum sentence.
Smith has already served four years of prison, which will reduce his remaining sentence to nine to 11 years.
During oral arguments the state’s prosecutor, Ultan Doyle, and Smith’s attorney, Jordana Levine, argued over including time for probation. Doyle requested a minimum of 15 years (minus time served) without probation, recommending a straight release from prison. Doyle said he based this on numerous factors, including the egregious nature of the incident; impact on Wing’s family; and Smith’s criminal record, which includes seven felony convictions, 24 misdemeanors and several documented incidents while in prison.
Levine argued, however, that a straight release from prison would deprive Smith a chance to rehabilitate to avoid recidivism.
“Part of our responsibility is to help people not end up back in jail,” Levine told Tomisi. “To say that the only just sentence is the maximum sentence only guarantees that he will go back. There’s no furlough or probationary supervision with that sentence, no transition back into the community.”
After the hearing Doyle explained that the two year difference between the minimum and maximum is the discretion of the Department of Corrections to decide.
Family members said that this sentence hearing would provide limited closure for them, apart from an end to the difficult court appearances. Though even had Smith received a life sentence, the family said they will never stop feeling the loss of Wing.
“People say that time heals all wound, but I don’t believe there’s enough time in the world,” Wing’s daughter Brooke, 20, said in her testimony.
Brooke described Wing as a devoted husband and father, with tremendous generosity and care for others, a love for hunting and a wonderful sense of humor. Particularly impacted by Wing’s death are the youngest family members, including Wing’s son, 7, who has limited memory of his father.
After the hearing Wing’s wife Sheila said that there will never be closure so far as his memory and impact on their lives, and added that he will always live on in their stories, videos and other memories.
“Fortunately we are all strong,” she said. “Our children are strong, because he was strong.”
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