A 36-year-old man accused of raping a child, robbing his friend and fleeing to Idaho is being held in the Thurston County jail without bail.
Devin James Smith appeared in Thurston County Superior Court Thursday after being arrested by Boise police on Feb. 3.
Smith absconded to Idaho last month after removing a GPS tracker he was supposed to wear under court order, prompting a warrant for his arrest. Court records show the order pertained to a case in which Smith is accused of sexually assaulting a female child for over a decade.
At the time of his arrest, Smith was also under investigation for kidnapping and robbing a former friend, one who posted bail for Smith in the rape case, as well as that former friend's mother.
Judge Christopher Lanese found probable cause for several new crimes Thursday: first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, second-degree theft, unlawful imprisonment, felony harassment — threat to kill.
Smith allegedly committed all these crimes Feb. 2 while armed with a firearm and with the aggravated circumstance of victim vulnerability, according to court records.
Lanese said Smith is alleged to have victimized someone "who appears to have been one of his last friends on earth." He said the former friend uses a wheelchair.
Smith was in a wheelchair while he appeared virtually from the county jail. However, Lanese said Smith was not in a wheelchair at the time of his arrest.
Boise police located Smith at a local business, according to the Idaho Statesman. Smith reportedly cut his neck with a knife when police arrived and officers fired a 40 mm "less-lethal" round at him.
An Ada County Sheriff's deputy used a stun gun on Smith and sent a K9 dog after him as he attempted to run away, the Statesman reported.
What did the court order on Thursday?
The Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney's Office filed a motion to deny bail for Smith in the new case and another motion to revoke his release in the older case, in which bail was initially set at $75,000.
Given that the two cases are intertwined, Public Defense attorney Diana Wildland asked the court to delay consideration of the prosecution's motions so Smith's assigned attorney in the first case could respond to both.
Lanese scheduled an evidentiary hearing for Feb. 21 for the two motions to be brought up again. In the meantime, Lanese ordered Smith to be held in custody in both cases until further order.
He also barred Smith from contacting the two alleged victims in the new case, both of whom spoke during Thursday's hearing.
"It is in my belief, given the circumstances, that bail would truly serve no purpose considering the fact that Mr. Smith has already violated one set bail," Smith's former friend said.
After saying his piece, the former friend's mother addressed the court in Spanish. She said Smith broke into their home and frightened them.
"We don't have any longer the trust to be free in our home," the mother said. "He already threatened us that if he were to be free, he was going to come back and kill all my family."
Lanese said Smith cut off his GPS ankle monitor after investigators uncovered "child sexual abuse material" on his phone. The judge then critiqued the prosecution's use of the phrase "child pornography" in their motion.
"This court believes that use of that terminology normalizes both the depictions and the acts contained therein, minimizes the crimes associated with them and is factually incorrect as a term, when in fact, these images are crime scene photos," Lanese said. "Let's not use that term."
Court records show Smith has no known criminal convictions.
The investigation
Probable cause statements for Smith's two cases describe the investigations from the perspective of law enforcement.
On April 26, 2024, an Olympia police officer responded to an area high school to a report of sexual assault, according to the first statement. A student told a school counselor that Smith had been sexually assaulting her for 10 years.
The officer met the student and she disclosed a long history of abuse. When asked why she chose to speak up at that time, the student told the officer that she never felt close enough to anybody to confide in.
That changed when she became close friends with another student who encouraged her to talk to an adult.
The officer arrested Smith at his apartment on suspicion of rape of a child. When questioned, the statement says Smith described a hatred of women and a desire to get into a relationship.
Smith reportedly did not admit to wrongdoing, but he refused to call the victim a liar.
At about 2:36 p.m. Feb. 2, a Thurston County deputy responded to the home of Smith's former friend, according to the second statement. The former friend told the deputy that he and his mother had been held captive since the morning.
He accused Smith of holding them at gunpoint and forcing both of them to make $500 electronic money transfers to Smith's bank account.
Additionally, Smith drove the pair to a Wells Fargo branch in Centralia and forced them to make withdrawals from their respective accounts in the amounts of $1,000 and $700.
He then took them to a Western Union inside a Safeway in Rochester. There, he forced the former friend's mother to get four $500 money orders.
Smith allegedly held one of the two at gunpoint while the other obtained money. In all, the statement says Smith took $4,700 from the pair.
They returned to the pair's home where Smith is accused of tying them up with duct tape and threatening to kill them if they alerted police. He started a video call on his former friend's phone so he could watch them as he left.
Before leaving, Smith took hard drives and a computer for the home security system as well as his former friend's phone and wallet.
After deputies arrived, they learned Smith tried to use his former friend's bank card in Tigard, Oregon, for a declined $300 transaction at about 2:46 p.m. Feb. 2.
Deputies obtained a search warrant to ping the phone Smith carried. They tracked Smith to Boise, Idaho, where he was arrested.
The former friend told deputies that he and his family had posted bail for Smith in the rape of a child case. He reportedly put up $6,500 cash and his house as collateral for bail. The family even allowed Smith to live with them for about six months.
The former friend's father kicked out Smith from the home in December. Thurston County Superior Court issued an arrest warrant for Smith on Jan. 16 after being notified that he removed his GPS tracker.
On Jan. 19, deputies contacted the former friend. He checked a joint account with Smith and noticed Smith was making transactions in Post Falls, Idaho.
The former friend decided on his own to withdraw $1,800 out of the joint account and transfer the money into his personal account and his mother's account.
He reportedly did this to draw Smith back to the area because his home had been put up as collateral for bail.
The former friend told deputies he and Smith had been friends since college.
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