Man facing trial over shooting of toddler

An Evergreen man charged in the shooting death of his girlfriend's 19-month-old child will stand trial for murder Monday in Flathead County District Court.

Jury selection is expected to begin about 9 a.m. and last most of the morning.

The prosecution's case for deliberate homicide will in part rely on forensic evidence collected against 24-year-old Dwayne Scott Smail, who has claimed the March 2008 shooting was an accident.

Smail told investigators he had placed a 9 mm Ruger pistol on an exposed portion of his bed's box spring before going to sleep - and awoke to find 19-month-old Korbyn Eva May Williams tapping him on the shoulder, holding the handgun.

The gun discharged when he went to grab it from the toddler, he told detectives.

But County Attorney Ed Corrigan, who in May 2008 raised the charge against Smail from negligent homicide to deliberate homicide, has said physical evidence at the scene fails to support Smail's version of events.

Corrigan is expected to call sheriff's detectives, officials from the state crime lab, blood-spatter specialists and other forensic experts to the stand during the four-day trial.

Family members of the alleged victim and numerous other witnesses also may testify.

The only additional person public defender Steven N. Eschenbacher has added to the prosecution's lengthy witness list is Smail himself.

Neither Corrigan nor Eschenbacher were available Friday to comment on the upcoming trial.

According to the Flathead County Sheriff's Office, Smail, who was in a relationship with Korbyn's mother, was alone with the child at the Montana Village apartment complex on Montana 35 in Evergreen when the shooting occurred.

He was caring for Korbyn while her mother was at work at a Kalispell restaurant, investigators said.

Korbyn, who was shot in the head, died at the scene.

If convicted, Smail faces up to 100 years or life in prison. He also could be ordered to serve up to an additional 10 years in prison for the use of a firearm in the commission of a crime.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com