Latoya McClellan, 43, of Lima, on Monday was sentenced to 18 months in prison for hiding a firearm allegedly used by her son to shoot and kill Lima resident Steven Smith last summer.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A Lima woman who admitted she hid the firearm allegedly used by her son to shoot and kill Steven Smith last summer was sentenced to prison on Monday.
Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed sentenced Latoya McClellan, 43, to a term of 18 months on a third-degree felony charge of tampering with evidence.
Admittedly choosing his words carefully in light of a murder charge pending against Donya Perkins — McClellan’s son — the judge said that by tampering with the alleged murder weapon the woman “presented a problem for law enforcement” in the investigation into Smith’s death and also “presented a problem for justice being served” in that case.
Perkins, 18, was charged with murder by an Allen County grand jury in November in the July 2023 shooting death of 41-year-old Smith. McClellan and her son were taken into custody after Smith’s body was discovered in the early morning hours of July 16 in the 1100 block of Reese Avenue in Lima.
Smith’s mother addressed the court Monday and said her son may be alive today if McClellan had called authorities immediately after the shooting. Instead, the woman said, McClellan was more worried about protecting her son.
“Whatever happened, happened,” Smith’s mother said to McClellan, “but you let my baby lay there for over eight hours.”
Turning to Reed, the woman said, “She did not call for help. Instead of dialing three numbers — 9-1-1 — she dialed 10 numbers to get someone to help her hide the gun. She had no compassion for my son. She left him laying out there … and that’s cold.”
Assistant Allen County Prosecuting Attorney Josh Carp told the judge the weapon in question has never been located.
According to court documents, McClellan told investigators Smith had come to her residence on July 16 and “caused a disturbance” which led to an altercation with Perkins, who reportedly produced a firearm and shot Smith once in the lower abdomen. The injured man fled on foot but collapsed in the back yard of the Reese Avenue residence.
McClellan told detectives she discarded the firearm in a wooded lot on 14th Street. During Monday’s sentencing hearing her attorney, Jerry Pitts, told the judge his client acted out of “fear for herself and her son” when she made the decision to hide the weapon.
Perkins, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was initially charged as a juvenile in the case. His case was bound over to Allen County Common Pleas Court in October. He has a jury trial scheduled for June.
Reed said McClellan will be eligible immediately upon her arrival at the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation site in Marysville to apply for a judicial release from prison. The judge said the request does not a guarantee an early release.
