Prosecutors rested their case Monday in the triple murder trial against Charles Robert Smith, an Annapolis man who killed three people in his neighborhood and shot three others in a 2023 mass shooting.

Across nine days of testimony, Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess and Assistant State’s Attorney Jason Steinhardt introduced more than 120 exhibits and questioned over 40 witnesses, including gunshot victims, neighbors and federal law enforcement agents.

The state’s assembly was meant to bolster the theory that Smith’s hatred for Hispanic people — and particularly his Hispanic neighbors — fueled the June 11, 2023, shooting, which killed Mario Mireles, Nicolas Mireles and Christian Segovia.

The defense, meanwhile, has argued their client was protecting his family from “perceived threats” after a parking dispute between them and Mario Mireles, a neighbor who shared many years of animosity with the Smiths, escalated.

Smith’s defense is set to continue Tuesday.

A birthday party and a parked car

Mario Mireles insisted his family throw a birthday party for his older brother Luis, and though it was a last minute plan, family and friends soon piled into Paddington Place to celebrate. Nicolas Mireles, Mario and Luis’ father, arrived early with his wife and kids to help their mother, Harcinia Ruiz, get things ready.

Witnesses said Shirley Smith, the defendant’s mother, began yelling and complaining outside about an Infiniti parked in front of their home. She claimed it blocked their driveway and would prevent her son from backing his boat into the property.

Mario Mireles disagreed and dismissed her, witnesses said, but the argument continued. At one point, Shirley Smith shoved her neighbor and, according to the defense, Mario Mireles then raised his arm at her.

This, they said, was when Charles Smith came within eyesight.

In his opening arguments, public defender Felipe Gonzalez told the jury in that moment, Charles Smith was “not seeing a bunch of Hispanics,” but rather a threat to his family.

Smith rushed out of his car — leaving it in the middle of the street and his boat blocking another neighbor’s driveway — and joined the argument.

Soon, he retrieved a handgun and pointed it at Mario Mireles. They tussled on the ground and the firearm went off. An autopsy showed Mario Mireles sustained one gunshot wound while a gun was pressed against his chest.

Smith then shot Segovia, Mario Mireles’ friend, multiple times. Some witnesses said Smith then stood over Mireles and fired again.

The sound of ‘fireworks’

According to her testimony, as the first gunshots went off, Ruiz turned to her son and said, “Luis, for your birthday, fireworks.” They weren’t planned by the Mireles family, however, and soon, someone said that Mario had been shot.

Nicolas Mireles, who witnesses said was socializing on the upstairs porch, handed off his baby and ran out front with a group of party members toward the two downed men.

Charles and Shirley Smith retreated into their house while the crowd gathered. Standing in the Smiths’ front yard, Luis Mireles hurled a shutter through their front bay window, shattering it.

According to the defense, hearing the glass, Charles Smith believed the group was trying to break into his house. Grabbing his AR-15 rifle, he went downstairs and began firing from the front window, killing Nicolas Mireles and injuring Rosalina Segovia, Enner Canales-Hernandez and Paul Johnson.

The defense described Smith’s second round of shooting as “suppressive fire” against a retaliatory mob. At the time of Smith’s arrest, no one at the scene told police they saw anyone else with a weapon.

Another shooter, but a missing gun

When the crime scene was taken down at Paddington Place bullet holes could be seen on the siding, front door and awning of the Smiths’ home. Authorities, however, never recovered another weapon linked to the incident.

In her opening arguments, Leitess said Luis Mireles had fired a gun at the Smiths’ house “to try and stop this mass shooter from killing anyone else.”

Only two bullets were found in the Smiths’ house. According to the FBI, the only ballistics evidence found not related to one of the defendant’s weapons was a cartridge case two driveways over.

However, it wasn’t until Mario Mireles’ sister Nelcy Goss and her husband Ken testified that the jury heard a state’s witness verify the second shooter. Both said they deceived detectives up until weeks before Smith’s trial to protect Luis Mireles.

“I had already lost one brother,” Nelcy Goss said. “I didn’t want to lose another.”

The charges

Smith was indicted in 2023 on 42 charges, including three counts of first-degree murder and three hate crimes.

On Monday, however, the state chose to drop the counts involving Ruiz and Judi Abundez, Mario Mireles’ mother and wife, due to a lack of evidence. Witnesses told the jury that Abundez had stayed by Mario Mireles throughout the rifle fire and begged Smith not to shoot because she was pregnant.

“They were in the area,” Leitess told Anne Arundel Circuit Judge J. Michael Wachs. “However, we were unable to prove the evidence.”

On Monday, the defense asked Wachs to dismiss the hate crimes, which suggest Smith’s actions were influenced by the victims’ national origins.

Public defender Denis O’Connell said while there is room in the law for a broader interpretation, the state should be held to the language in their indictment and that there was no evidence Smith knew the national origin of any of the men killed.

“It’s not enough for the state to say they’re Hispanic,” O’Connell told Wachs, who disagreed and kept the charges in place.

Ex-wife describes ‘constant’ racism at Smith house

Some witnesses testified that Mario Mireles had started to walk back to the birthday party after Charles Smith confronted him, but that he reengaged once Smith yelled out a racist remark or slur. However, some of the most detailed evidence of Smith’s feelings toward Hispanic people came from his ex-wife, who once lived on Paddington Place with his family.

Taking the stand Friday, Emily Johnson said her then-husband and in-laws made “constant” racist comments about their neighbors, saying they were too loud, dirty and took up too much space on the street.

What’s next?

Having called their first witnesses Monday, including a ballistics expert who largely concurred with the FBI’s analysis, Smith’s public defenders will continue questioning witnesses Tuesday.

Once the defense rests, closing arguments will take place and the jury will begin its deliberations.

Have a news tip? Contact Luke Parker at lparker@baltsun.com, 410-725-6214 and x.com/@lparkernews.