BECKLEY, W.Va. -- Beckley police Cpl. William Reynolds didn't want to be sitting in a Jeep at 4 a.m. with his friend's girlfriend while doing undercover police work.

He'd gone out for a night of barhopping on Aug. 28, 2006, and hadn't expected to spend it chasing one potential drug dealer after another with his friend, Cpl. Charles E. "Chuck" Smith, according to courtroom testimony.

Reynolds didn't even work in the narcotics unit; Smith did.

But there he was, sitting in an undercover Jeep watching Smith be led to a drug dealer by Michael Martin, a local man who said he could find them a hookup.

As he watched Smith and Martin walk away, Reynolds had a bad feeling about what was going on. He told Smith's girlfriend, Jasminda Gonzales, to dial 911 - not to call it but just to go ahead and get ready to hit "Send" on her cell phone if anything went wrong.

Then something did go terribly wrong.

Smith was shot and killed moments later by the man Martin had brought him to, Thomas Leftwich.

The killing sparked outrage and an outpouring of sympathy for Smith and his family from around the state.

"As we were painfully reminded today, our progress in confronting our drug problem in West Virginia does not come without a tremendous sacrifice on the part of our dedicated law enforcement personnel, who every day put themselves in harm's way to keep our communities safe," Gov. Joe Manchin said at the time.

But why two off-duty police officers ended up trying to make a drug buy at 4 a.m. while drinking and with a girlfriend in the car has never fully been answered.

Leftwich and Martin were convicted in separate trials of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without mercy. Martin's conviction was overturned in December by the West Virginia Supreme Court. He is scheduled to be retried on April 12.

'Not comfortable with this'

Smith and Reynolds started off that evening in August 2006 with dinner and drinks at Ruby Tuesday's in Beckley. Smith was getting a divorce and left his young child with his soon-to-be-ex-wife shortly before meeting Reynolds, according to Reynolds' testimony at Martin's trial.

After Ruby Tuesday's, they went to Applebee's and another local bar and grill before going to the Pikeview Lounge to meet up with Smith's girlfriend, Gonzales, Reynolds said at trial.

Once inside the bar, a man started talking to Smith, having a private conversation with him away from Reynolds, the officer testified.

When Smith came back, he told Reynolds they had to leave.

"I thought something had happened. ... Maybe somebody was starting a problem," Reynolds said.

But instead, Reynolds and Smith were going to track down a drug dealer, although both were off-duty and had been drinking. Smith's autopsy listed his blood-alcohol level as .07, just below the legal limit, according to the transcript of the trial. At the trial, there was testimony that Beckley narcotics officers are on call 24 hours a day, according to the Supreme Court brief.

They followed Blackburn in Smith's Jeep, which was an undercover police car, thinking they were going with him to purchase drugs. But the drug dealer never appeared.

As they waited on Saunders Avenue, a woman approached the Jeep. It was after 3:30 a.m.

"She offered to take Chucky to someone else to get some [drugs]," Reynolds testified.

She offered her keys to the police officers as collateral for the drug deal. If she ripped them off, they could still get into her apartment.

Reynolds said he wanted to stop looking for drug dealers, but Smith wanted to pursue it.

After driving to an abandoned pool, Smith got out of the Jeep and walked with the woman to find a drug dealer, but Reynolds quickly put a stop to it.

Reynolds called Smith on his cell phone and told him, "I'm not comfortable with this. I'm coming to get you."

Once back in the Jeep, Smith and Reynolds spotted a Corsica sitting near the entrance to the abandoned pool.

A passenger in the Corsica got out and started running, Reynolds said. When the Corsica took off, Smith, Reynolds and Gonzales followed it, chasing it down with the Jeep's police lights flashing minutes later.

He'd gone out for a night of barhopping on Aug. 28, 2006, and hadn't expected to spend it chasing one potential drug dealer after another with his friend, Cpl. Charles E. "Chuck" Smith, according to courtroom testimony.

Reynolds didn't even work in the narcotics unit; Smith did.

But there he was, sitting in an undercover Jeep watching Smith be led to a drug dealer by Michael Martin, a local man who said he could find them a hookup.

As he watched Smith and Martin walk away, Reynolds had a bad feeling about what was going on. He told Smith's girlfriend, Jasminda Gonzales, to dial 911 - not to call it but just to go ahead and get ready to hit "Send" on her cell phone if anything went wrong.

Then something did go terribly wrong.

Smith was shot and killed moments later by the man Martin had brought him to, Thomas Leftwich.

The killing sparked outrage and an outpouring of sympathy for Smith and his family from around the state.

"As we were painfully reminded today, our progress in confronting our drug problem in West Virginia does not come without a tremendous sacrifice on the part of our dedicated law enforcement personnel, who every day put themselves in harm's way to keep our communities safe," Gov. Joe Manchin said at the time.

But why two off-duty police officers ended up trying to make a drug buy at 4 a.m. while drinking and with a girlfriend in the car has never fully been answered.

Leftwich and Martin were convicted in separate trials of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without mercy. Martin's conviction was overturned in December by the West Virginia Supreme Court. He is scheduled to be retried on April 12.

'Not comfortable with this'

Smith and Reynolds started off that evening in August 2006 with dinner and drinks at Ruby Tuesday's in Beckley. Smith was getting a divorce and left his young child with his soon-to-be-ex-wife shortly before meeting Reynolds, according to Reynolds' testimony at Martin's trial.

After Ruby Tuesday's, they went to Applebee's and another local bar and grill before going to the Pikeview Lounge to meet up with Smith's girlfriend, Gonzales, Reynolds said at trial.

Once inside the bar, a man started talking to Smith, having a private conversation with him away from Reynolds, the officer testified.

When Smith came back, he told Reynolds they had to leave.

"I thought something had happened. ... Maybe somebody was starting a problem," Reynolds said.

But instead, Reynolds and Smith were going to track down a drug dealer, although both were off-duty and had been drinking. Smith's autopsy listed his blood-alcohol level as .07, just below the legal limit, according to the transcript of the trial. At the trial, there was testimony that Beckley narcotics officers are on call 24 hours a day, according to the Supreme Court brief.

They followed Blackburn in Smith's Jeep, which was an undercover police car, thinking they were going with him to purchase drugs. But the drug dealer never appeared.

As they waited on Saunders Avenue, a woman approached the Jeep. It was after 3:30 a.m.

"She offered to take Chucky to someone else to get some [drugs]," Reynolds testified.

She offered her keys to the police officers as collateral for the drug deal. If she ripped them off, they could still get into her apartment.

Reynolds said he wanted to stop looking for drug dealers, but Smith wanted to pursue it.

After driving to an abandoned pool, Smith got out of the Jeep and walked with the woman to find a drug dealer, but Reynolds quickly put a stop to it.

Reynolds called Smith on his cell phone and told him, "I'm not comfortable with this. I'm coming to get you."

Once back in the Jeep, Smith and Reynolds spotted a Corsica sitting near the entrance to the abandoned pool.

A passenger in the Corsica got out and started running, Reynolds said. When the Corsica took off, Smith, Reynolds and Gonzales followed it, chasing it down with the Jeep's police lights flashing minutes later.

They patted the man inside down for drugs, but found nothing, Reynolds said.

When they got back in the car, Smith and Reynolds realized they still had the woman's keys.

They drove back to her apartment and tried to talk to her. She simultaneously offered to get them drugs, and accused Smith and Reynolds of being police officers, Reynolds said.

"It starts to be an argument about who's doing what," Reynolds testified.

'Shots rang out'

It's at that point, with two failed drug deals and another failed drug bust behind them, that Michael Martin comes onto the scene.

According to Martin, who did not testify at the trial, the officers approached and asked him if he knew where they could find some drugs, said Dewitt Daniel, the Greenbrier County public defender who handled Martin's first trial.

"He doesn't have a dollar on him, no drugs, cell phone, nothing," Daniel said. "He says the cops approached him and offered $100 if he could find something. He has to borrow the cop's cell phone to make the call."

Reynolds testified that Martin approached the two off-duty officers.

Martin agreed to get the two men drugs and got in the Jeep with Reynolds, Smith and Gonzales. He led them to the end of Willow Lane at South Street, where he says he knew someone who could sell them crack.

At a stoplight, Reynolds testified, he tried to get Martin to get out of the car, but Martin wouldn't go.

Sitting in the Jeep at the end of Willow Lane is where Reynolds got a really bad feeling about what was about to happen.

The drug transaction was to take place at the bottom of a flight of stairs, on steps leading from a house down to the street, said Gregory L. Ayers, the Kanawha County public defender who is handling the new trial.

As Martin and Reynolds approached the stairs, Reynolds could see a shadowy figure on the landing above them.

"I knew something had gone wrong. I didn't know what happened because there was a quick confrontation of words right before this and then, you know he pulled the badge and then shots rang out," Reynolds said at the trial.

Martin claims Smith was shot after an exchange of words with Leftwich, Ayers said.

"At some point during this exchange, Smith pulls out his badge and says, 'Now you're going to jail,'" Ayers said.

Reynolds ran to Smith and pulled him away from the landing. The shadowy figure - Thomas Leftwich - escaped and Reynolds was left to comfort his dying friend, who had been shot in the chest.

Two words

At Martin's trial, West Virginia State Police Capt. Scott VanMeter was asked by Raleigh County prosecutor Kristin Keller whether Gonzales and Reynolds were credible witnesses. He twice answered with one word: "Yes."

The state Supreme Court ruled that VanMeter's testimony that Gonzales and Reynolds were telling the truth was impermissible, that allowing that testimony had biased the jury in Martin's case.

Raleigh County Circuit Judge Harry L. Kirkpatrick III should not have allowed Keller's questions because the credibility of witnesses is up to the jury, not expert witnesses, to decide, the court wrote in its opinion.

"No trial is a perfect trial. We try as hard as we can," Keller said Thursday. "It's up to the Supreme Court to decide if something had an impact on the jury's decision. That's the Supreme Court's call and we have to deal with it. ... What was very important to us and very important to law enforcement was that the actual direct perpetrator [Leftwich], the person that actually shot, was convicted of life without mercy."

Keller, who has worked in the office since 1983 and prosecuted Martin's first trial, will handle the retrial herself.

A 2003 study by the Center for Public Integrity found five cases tried by Keller and later appealed to the state Supreme Court in which a defendant alleged prosecutorial misconduct or error. In two of those cases, the court ruled that her conduct unfairly harmed the defendant; in three, they ruled that her conduct was a harmless error and didn't prejudice the defendant

In addition to the Martin case, one other case alleging error or misconduct by Keller has gone to the Supreme Court since 2003. Another is set to go to the high court in January.

Reach Gary Harki at gha...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5163.