Trial to Begin in Martha Childress Case

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)–Jury selection gets underway Monday in the trial of Michael Juan Smith, Smith is accused of shooting USC Student Martha Childress in Five Points, leaving her paralyzed. Monday Jury Selection begins as Smith faces attempted murder charges. Last June a judge in federal court handed down the maximum punishment possible on a federal weapons charge, sentencing Michael Juan Smith to 10 years in federal prison. Smith pleaded guilty in February to being a felon in possession of a weapon. Investigators say that gun was used in the shooting of Martha Childress in downtown Columbia’s Five Points. The University of South Carolina student, who was not the intended target that night in October, was waiting on a taxi when she was hit, subsequently being paralyzed from the waist down.